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The Locked Room by Maj Sjowall
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The Locked Room (original 1972; edition 1992)

by Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo

Series: Martin Beck (8)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,1673316,824 (3.73)86
Fiction. Literature. Mystery. HTML:The stunning eighth installment in the Martin Beck mystery series by the renowned Swedish crime writing duo is a masterful take on a classic locked room mystery. With an introduction by Michael Connelly: "One of the most authentic, gripping, and profound collections of police procedurals ever accomplished."
A young blonde in sunglasses robs a bank and kills a hapless citizen. Across town, a corpse with a bullet shot through its heart is found in a locked roomwith no gun at the scene. The crimes seem disparate, but to Martin Beck they are two pieces of the same puzzle, and solving it becomes the one way he can escape the pains of his failed marriage and the lingering effects of a near-fatal bullet wound. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance and gravity of real life.
… (more)
Member:memasmb
Title:The Locked Room
Authors:Maj Sjowall
Other authors:Per Wahloo
Info:Vintage (1992), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:read, mystery

Work Information

The Locked Room by Maj Sjöwall (1972)

  1. 00
    Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (ehines)
    ehines: For an American like I am, Sweden is an almost mythical land--a sort of soft-porn socialist paradise. Both these books let you in on a very different side of Sweden. More real, but not offputting.
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» See also 86 mentions

English (28)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  Norwegian (1)  Danish (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (33)
Showing 1-5 of 28 (next | show all)
Maybe even 4.5 stars! While the locked room part of the mystery was not as clever as John Dickson Carr's, it was a great backdrop to Martin Beck's recovery (from his injury in the previous book) and Sjowall & Wahloo did a great job entwining it with the series of bank robberies that Kollberg and others are investigating.

But what really lifts this police procedural from above average to excellent is the look at 1971 Sweden that we get and the snide comments about bureaucracy (and the District Attorney is a wonderful character in this sense!). And the irony of the ending was also satisfying despite the fact that generally I don't like it when the guilty person escapes detection. In this case though, Mauritzon gets convicted for a bank robbery & shooting he didn't do but was exonerated for the murder he actually committed! ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Efter sjukskrivningen p.g.a. skottskadan i Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle, får Martin Beck uppgiften att lösa ett fall med ett mord i ett slutet rum. Fallet kompliceras av att det förekommit vissa misstag tidigare i undersökningen. Samtidigt leder undersökningen Beck till den frispråkiga hyresvärdinnan Rhea Nielsen, som han blir kär i.
  CalleFriden | Feb 9, 2023 |
This entry in the series is longer than usual and even more full of depictions that make Sweden seem about as bad as the worst parts of America. But somehow it isn't that depressing. Martin Beck is recovering from the trauma at the end of the last volume and is investigating a locked room murder. Meanwhile, there is a string of bank robberies going on that are taking up most of his staff's attention. The progression of Beck's personal life story is at least as interesting here as the dual plots, which you can bet will converge in some improbable manner by the end of the book. Audiobook narrator Weiner is excellent as always. ( )
  datrappert | Nov 11, 2021 |
The best in the series so far. Beck at his dispeptic best and much comic relief in the form of a bulldozer. ( )
  Stephen.Lawton | Aug 7, 2021 |
With both men in jobs that take them out of the country the first part of the book reflects that transient nature to their relationship: catching the odd meal in the airport and overnight stays before one jets off again. That they are willing to do so much to spend even a few moments together hints at the seriousness of the relationship.
When Klin moves in with West he is introduced to a locked room which is West's personal space. And he is given the same sort of space for himself. Klin never once considers what is in the room. Until his brothers come to stay. They are a pain and into everything and of course they want to know what is behind the locked door.
I can't say much else without giving the game away. I guessed the secret long before the brothers broke into the room.
I read it all in one sitting. It was well worth an hour or so of my time. ( )
  Lillian_Francis | Jul 26, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 28 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (5 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Sjöwall, Majprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Wahlöö, Permain authorall editionsconfirmed
Austin, Paul BrittenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Berf, PaulTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bouquet, PhilippeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Connelly, MichaelIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Engen, BodilTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
García-Posada, EldaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hiroshi, TakamiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hoff, TrulsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jalonen, KariTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jansz, UllaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jørgensen, Grete JuelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Maass, Hans-JoachimTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nesser, HåkanIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Olszańska, MariaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rak, JanAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vrtišová, JiřinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weiner, TomNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Yang, YongfanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zatti, RenatoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zhdanova, L. L.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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The bells of St Maria struck two as she came out from the metro station on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan.

(translation by Paul Britten Austin, 1973)
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Insurance companies have one urgent task: to earn as much money as possible. So they keep their personnel up to their ears in work. For the same reason they keep all their documents in apple-pie order, in a constant panic that someone may swindle them and gnaw unpunished into their profits. Nowadays this mad working tempo had tended to become an end in itself: "Impossible, we haven't got the time."
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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. HTML:The stunning eighth installment in the Martin Beck mystery series by the renowned Swedish crime writing duo is a masterful take on a classic locked room mystery. With an introduction by Michael Connelly: "One of the most authentic, gripping, and profound collections of police procedurals ever accomplished."
A young blonde in sunglasses robs a bank and kills a hapless citizen. Across town, a corpse with a bullet shot through its heart is found in a locked roomwith no gun at the scene. The crimes seem disparate, but to Martin Beck they are two pieces of the same puzzle, and solving it becomes the one way he can escape the pains of his failed marriage and the lingering effects of a near-fatal bullet wound. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance and gravity of real life.

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Possibly one of the most unattractive covers on a book I have ever seen... and irrelevant to the story too!
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