Sjöwall and Wahlöö
Encyclopedia
Maj Sjöwall
Maj Sjöwall
Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm...

and Per Wahlöö
Per Wahlöö
Per Fredrik Wahlöö was a Swedish author. He is perhaps best known for the collaborative work with his partner Maj Sjöwall on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm, published between 1965 and 1975...

, a common-law wife and husband team of detective writers from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Together they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels (police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

s) about the exploits of detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

s from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck
Martin Beck
Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective who is the main character in a series of ten novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime...

 was the main protagonist. Both authors also wrote novels separately. For the Martin Beck series, they plotted and researched each book together then wrote alternate chapters.

Martin Beck series

The couple originally planned the series as a sequence of ten novels collectively titled The Story of a Crime. The novels revolve around a team of police investigators led by Martin Beck.
  1. Roseanna
    Roseanna
    Roseanna by Sjöwall and Wahlöö is the first novel in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team.- Plot summary :...

    (Roseanna, 1965)
  2. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
    The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
    The Man Who Went Up in Smoke is a novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team. -Plot summary:...

    (Mannen som gick upp i rök, 1966)
  3. The Man on the Balcony
    The Man on the Balcony
    The Man on the Balcony is the third novel in the detective series revolving around Swedish police detective Martin Beck, and was written by Sjöwall and Wahlöö and originally published as Mannen på balkongen in 1967.-Plot summary:...

    (Mannen på balkongen, 1967)
  4. The Laughing Policeman
    The Laughing Policeman (novel)
    The Laughing Policeman , by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, is the fourth police detective novel, in the ten-part 'Martin Beck' series. Originally published in Sweden in 1968 as Den skrattande polisen, it is the first novel in the series to criticize the shortcomings of the Swedish welfare state...

    (Den skrattande polisen, 1968) (Edgar Award
    Edgar Award
    The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

    , Best Novel, 1971)
  5. The Fire Engine That Disappeared
    The Fire Engine That Disappeared
    The Fire Engine That Disappeared is the fifth in the 'Martin Beck' detective series by Sjöwall and Wahlöö.-Plot summary:...

    (Brandbilen som försvann, 1969)
  6. Murder at the Savoy
    Murder at the Savoy
    Murder at the Savoy is a Swedish crime novel and the sixth book out of ten in the 'Martin Beck' detective series by Sjöwall and Wahlöö revolving around police detective Martin Beck.- Title :"Murder at the Savoy" is the English title of the novel...

    (Polis, polis, potatismos!, 1970)
  7. The Abominable Man
    The Abominable Man
    The Abominable Man is a Swedish crime novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö from 1971 in the series revolving around police detective Martin Beck. One of Donald Knuth's favourite novels, "one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's brilliantly Swedish detective novels"...

    (Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle, 1971)
  8. The Locked Room
    The Locked Room
    The Locked Room is a novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team. -Plot summary:...

    (Det slutna rummet, 1972)
  9. Cop Killer
    Cop Killer (novel)
    Cop Killer is a novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team. - Plot summary:...

    (Polismördaren, 1974)
  10. The Terrorists
    The Terrorists
    The Terrorists is a 1975 novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team...

    (Terroristerna, 1975)


Per Wahlöö described their goals for the series as to "use the crime novel as a scalpel cutting open the belly of the ideologically pauperized and morally debatable so-called welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...

 of the bourgeois type."

Primary characters

  • Martin Beck
    Martin Beck
    Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective who is the main character in a series of ten novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime...

    , detective first grade and later promoted to inspector.

  • Sten Lennart Kollberg, Beck's most trusted colleague: a sarcastic glutton with a Socialist worldview; served as a paratrooper
    Paratrooper
    Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...

     and now refuses to carry a gun—after having shot and killed a person while in the line of duty. He is newly married in the second book and fathers two children over the course of the series. In The Fire Engine That Disappeared, he refers to Gunvald Larsson as "the stupidest detective in the history of criminal investigation", and in The Abominable Man, Larsson informs him, "I've always thought you were a fucking idiot." He resigns from the force at the end of the penultimate book, Cop Killer, but still has the last word in the final installment.

  • Gunvald Larsson, a former member of the merchant marine and the black sheep of a rich family; he has a liking for expensive clothes and pulp fiction
    Pulp magazine
    Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

     including the work of Sax Rohmer
    Sax Rohmer
    Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward , better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr...

    . He is also one of very few people outside the DDR who owns and drives a sports car
    Sports car
    A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

     manufactured by EMW
    Eisenacher Motorenwerk
    Eisenacher Motorenwerk was an East German manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles based in Eisenach. EMW also entered Formula One as a constructor in 1953, but participated in only one race, the 1953 German Grand Prix....

    . 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, despite the fact that he often treats Einar Rönn with the same boorishness and insensitive tactlessness that he does everybody else, Rönn is his only friend and the two are close, often spending time together outside of the job.

  • Einar Rönn, Larsson's friend from the rural north of Sweden; 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, only losing his temper once (on Larsson's behalf) in all the books.

  • 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 in The Fire Engine That Disappeared, but also as very boring. Some of his other peculiar characteristics include his insistence on getting 10 hours of sleep every night and his unreadable handwriting. He is also noted for having no temper and being immune to flattery. He later transfers to the Burglary and Theft division in an effort to avoid overtime. Therefore he features only briefly in the later books in the series (except The Terrorists).

  • Evald Hammar, Beck's boss until he retires in the end of The 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 from Murder at the Savoy onwards. A politician with little understanding of police work.

Other major characters

  • Kurt Kvant and Karl Kristiansson, lazy and inept partner patrolmen from Skåne. After Kvant is killed in The Abominable Man, Kristiansson has a new partner, Kenneth Kvastmo, who is equally inept but far more zealous.

  • Per Månsson, a leisurely but very competent Malmö
    Malmö
    Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...

     detective who becomes involved in several of Beck's cases.

  • Åke Stenström, a young detective noted for his shadowing
    Surveillance
    Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

     skills, who is killed in The Laughing Policeman.

  • Åsa Torell, widow of Åke Stenström who later decides to become a cop. She appears prominently in Murder at the Savoy and The Terrorists.

Minor recurring characters

  • Backlund, an unimaginative and rigid detective in Malmö.

  • Inga Beck, Martin Beck's wife, whom he later divorces.

  • Ingrid Beck, Martin Beck's daughter, often described as mature and independent and has a good relationship with her father.

  • Rolf Beck, Martin Beck's lazy son, with whom he has a poor relationship. Beck finally admits to himself in a later book that he dislikes the boy.

  • Rune Ek, one of the detectives. The character is usually minor, but appears more prominently in The Laughing Policeman.

  • Elofsson and Borglund, two partner patrolmen in Malmö
    Malmö
    Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...

    . They appear in The Fire Engine that Disappeared and Cop Killer. In the later book, Elofson is killed.

  • Norman Hansson, a uniformed police sergeant in some of the books.

  • Oskar Hjelm, a highly skilled but vain and temperamental forensic scientist.

  • Gun Kollberg, Kollberg's young wife and mother of his two children.

  • Rhea Nielsen, Martin Beck's new girlfriend after he divorces his wife. She is an open socialist, and enjoys cooking.

  • Herrgott Nöjd (Herrgott Allwright in English translations), a down-to-earth police from rural district of Anderslöv. Appears in the books Cop Killer and The Terrorists.

  • Sten "Buldozer" Ohlsson, a very energetic and enthusiastic public prosecutor in charge of investigating and prosecuting bank robbers; has a big part in The Locked Room.

  • Strömgren, a Stockholm detective with a minor role in some of the books. Little is known about him, but he is disliked by both Beck and Larsson.

  • Ullman, a pedant and nit-picking detective in some of the books, who is constantly making official complaints of his collagues over usually minor details.

  • Bo Zachrisson, a very mediocre policeman

Overview

The series is noteworthy for the way in which the lives of its characters change over the timespan covered by the ten books. Beck gets divorced, Kollberg quits the force, a third detective gets killed. The leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...

 of the series, written from the authors' clearly defined socialist viewpoint, is to indicate how Sweden, a country that championed social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

 at the time they were writing, nevertheless had the same problems of inequality and crime as other capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 countries. Political events of the time, such as the creation of the Greek dictatorship and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, often play significant roles as backdrops for the plots. Because the authors intended the books as a critique of capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 society (the last word in the final volume The Terrorists is "Marx"), all the books in their original editions were given the subtitle "Report of a Crime" as a purposefully ambiguous phrase.

Filmography

All of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's books have been adapted as films at least once (Roseanna twice), in different parts of the world. Since 1997, a popular movie series has been co-produced by German and Swedish companies. Many of these films have gone directly to TV., a 1973 American film by Stuart Rosenberg
Stuart Rosenberg
Stuart Rosenberg was an American film and television director whose notable works included the movies Cool Hand Luke , Voyage of the Damned , The Amityville Horror , and The Pope of Greenwich Village .-Early life and career:Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Rosenberg studied Irish...

, set in San Francisco instead of Stockholm (The Man on the Roof
The Man on the Roof
The Man on the Roof is a 1976 Swedish film directed by Bo Widerberg, based on the 1971 novel The Abominable Man by Sjöwall and Wahlöö. The film is a crime thriller about the police officer Martin Beck trying to catch a killer, and it reaches its climax when the killer barricades himself on a roof...

), a 1976 Swedish film based on The Abominable Man
  • De gesloten kamer (The Locked Room
    The Locked Room
    The Locked Room is a novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team. -Plot summary:...

    ), a 1993 Belgian-Dutch film by Jacob Bijl, with the setting moved to Antwerp.
  • Martin Beck, a 1993 Swedish TV serial with Gösta Ekman
    Gösta Ekman
    Hans Gösta Gustaf Ekman is a Swedish actor.-Biography:One of Sweden's most appreciated, respected and popular actors; Gösta Ekman started his career in theatre but has also appeared in several Swedish films, including the Jönssonligan series...

     as Martin Beck
  • Martin Beck, a series of 1997 Swedish TV films with Peter Haber
    Peter Haber
    Peter Alexander Haber is a Swedish actor. He grew up in Södertälje and in Remscheid, Germany. In 1987 he was hired by the Stockholm City Theatre where he was active until 1994....

    as Martin Beck
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