 The ten 2007HarperCollins editions lined up next to one another | |
Roseanna The Man Who Went Up in Smoke The Man on the Balcony The Laughing Policeman The Fire Engine That Disappeared Murder at the Savoy The Abominable Man The Locked Room Cop Killer The Terrorists | |
| Author | Maj Sjöwall andPer Wahlöö |
|---|---|
| Translator | Lois Roth (1), Joan Tate (2, 5, 6, 10), Alain Blair (3, 4), Amy and Ken Knoespel (6), Thomas Teal (7, 9) and Paul Britten Austin (8). |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish, translated into English |
| Discipline | Police procedural |
| Published | 1965-1975 |
| No. of books | 10 |
Martin Beck is a fictionalSwedish policedetective and the main character in a series of ten novels byMaj Sjöwall andPer Wahlöö,[1] collectively titledThe Story of a Crime. Frequently referred to as the Martin Beck stories, all have been adapted into films between 1967 and 1994. Six were adapted for the series featuringGösta Ekman as Martin Beck.
Between 1997 and 2018 there have also been 38 films (some releaseddirect for video and broadcast on television) based on the characters, withPeter Haber as Martin Beck. Apart from the core duo of Beck and his right-hand man Gunvald Larsson, the latter adaptations bear little resemblance to the plots of the original series. They feature a widely different and evolving cast of characters, though roughly similar themes and settings aroundStockholm.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Sjöwall and Wahlöö conceived and wrote a series of tenpolice procedural novels about the exploits ofdetectives from the special homicide commission of the Swedish national police; in these the character of Martin Beck was the protagonist.[2] (Both authors also wrote novels separately.) For the Martin Beck series, they plotted and researched each book together, and then wrote alternate chapters simultaneously.[3] The books cover ten years and are renowned for extensive character and setting development throughout the series. This is in part due to careful planning by Sjöwall and Wahlöö.[4]
Martin Beck: The protagonist of the series, Martin Beck goes from being an unhappily married man and father of two young teenagers, to a divorced man in a happy unmarried relationship with Rhea Nielsen, a kind and emphatic landlady whom Beck meets while investigating the death of a man who was Nielsen's tenant. Beck is prone to colds and often suffers from ailments and physical discomforts. Beck also gets several promotions, from Detective to Inspector, and Chief of the National Murder Squad by the end of the series. This seems to be to the chagrin of everyone involved, including him, as he hates the vision of being confined to desk work. InCop Killer, he is happily spared a promotion to a Commissioner. InThe Terrorists, he is, however, forced to become Chief of Operations in an important job protecting an American senator, meaning that he is for once, in theory, higher in position than his superior, Malm. He is allowed to assemble his perfect team, consisting of Larsson, Rönn, Skacke, Melander and himself. He does extremely well coordinating the desk work and keeping in communication (through allowing Melander to handle all telephone communications, and diverting all telephone calls, or switching off the telephone altogether whenever he needs time to think), impressing the Commissioner. InThe Abominable Man, he is shot and severely wounded. He quits smoking after the incident as his favourite manufacturer discontinues his preferred type of cigarette.
Lennart Kollberg: Beck's most trusted colleague; a sarcastic glutton with aSocialistworldview; served as aparatrooper. After having shot and accidentally killed a person in the line of duty, he refuses to carry a gun. He is newly married in the second book and fathers two children over the course of the series. InThe Fire Engine That Disappeared, he refers to Gunvald Larsson as "the stupidest detective in the history of criminal investigation", and inThe Abominable Man, Larsson informs him, "I've always thought you were a fucking idiot". Through working with each other on numerous investigations, they later come to understand each other. He resigns from the force at the end of the penultimate book,Cop Killer. He realises he was ashamed of what the police force had become, but still has the last word in the last book.
Gunvald Larsson: A former member of themerchant marine and the black sheep of a rich family, he has a liking for expensive clothes andpulp fiction including the work ofSax Rohmer. He is one of the few people outsideEast Germany who owns and drives asports car manufactured byEisenacher Motorenwerk. He is somewhat lacking in interpersonal skills and is disliked by most of his colleagues. He and Kollberg share a mutual antipathy, but are capable of working together efficiently when the occasion demands it. However, although he often treats Einar Rönn with the same boorishness, Rönn is his only friend. The two are close, often spending time together off the job. His rich, cultured family taught him how to behave correctly in all circumstances, something which the Commissioner notes that he tries to conceal. Larsson has a penchant for expensive clothes, and his tailored suits frequently get ruined during his investigations. He is tall and has china blue eyes, and is in extremely good shape. He is noted as the best in the team at breaking down doors.
Einar Rönn: Larsson's friend from Arjeplog in the rural north of Sweden, he is married to aLapp woman. He is permanently red-nosed, incapable of writing a coherent report and totally unimaginative, but a hard-working and efficient policeman. He is very calm and peaceful, losing his temper only once (on Larsson's behalf) in all the books. By the end of the series, Beck notes that Rönn had defied all expectations to become a valuable asset to the team, and someone whom he could trust.
Benny Skacke: A young ambitious, overzealous and sometimes hapless detective. He is introduced in the fifth book as a new member of the homicide commission, but later transfers to Malmö for personal reasons. Skacke is still somewhat naïve, seeking to become police commissioner, but he is noted by Beck in the last book as having matured significantly.
Fredrik Melander: Noted for his flawless memory and for always being in the lavatory when anyone wants him. Melander is described as a first-class policeman inThe Fire Engine That Disappeared, but also as very boring. He insists on getting ten hours of sleep every night and has illegible handwriting. He is noted for having no temper displays and being immune to flattery. He later transfers to the Burglary and Theft division in an effort to avoid overtime. After, he is featured briefly in the later books in the series (exceptThe Terrorists). Inthe Terrorists, Beck puts him in charge of telephone communications for his skill in having a long conversation with someone and getting nothing done.
Evald Hammar: Beck's boss until he retires in the end ofThe Fire Engine That Disappeared. He is mild-mannered, trusts his men's judgment, and dislikes the political infighting which increasingly accompanies his job.
Stig Malm: Beck's boss fromMurder at the Savoy onwards. A politician with little understanding of police work who is willing to do anything to get up the career ladder, for whom Beck eventually feels sorry by the end of the book. Malm is often ordered around by the National Police Commissioner. He has an overly high opinion of himself, not hampered by his one case as Chief of Operations ending in disaster.
All ten novels have been adapted to film. Some have been released under different titles and four have been filmed outside Sweden. The first actor to play Martin Beck wasKeve Hjelm in 1967.Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt portrayed Beck in 1976.
In 1993 and 1994,Gösta Ekman played the character in six films. American audiences are likely most familiar withWalter Matthau playing the Beck role in the 1973 film calledThe Laughing Policeman, where his character was called "Jake Martin."
Martin Beck has also been played byJan Decleir,Derek Jacobi andRomualds Ancāns. Two of the novels,Roseanna andMurder at the Savoy, have each twice been adapted for films. In the later TV series films based more on the named characters than events, Martin Beck is played byPeter Haber.
TheBBCdramatised the ten stories for radio and broadcast began in October 2012 onBBC Radio 4 under the umbrella title ofThe Martin Beck Killings.
The series starsSteven Mackintosh as Beck,Neil Pearson as Kollberg,Ralph Ineson as Larsson,Russell Boulter as Rönn, andAdrian Scarborough as Melander.[5]
Sjöwall and Wahlöö's technique of mixing traditionalcrime fiction with a focus on the social issues in the Swedish welfare state received a great deal of attention.[6] The concept has been updated in the 1990s withHenning Mankell's detective characterKurt Wallander and in the 2000s withStieg Larsson'sMillennium trilogy featuringLisbeth Salander. The basic concept has, by extension, given rise to the entireScandinavian noir scene. The Mystery Writers of America, in 1995, ratedThe Laughing Policeman as the 2nd best police procedural, afterTony Hillerman'sDance Hall of the Dead.[7]
