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The Laughing Policeman (Martin Beck, #4)

Maj Sjöwall

Start date: August 15, 2023

Finish date: September 6, 2023

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Continuing this pioneering Scandinavian noir series
[close] Continuing this pioneering Scandinavian noir series

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What Members Thought

Feb 21, 2011 Nancy Oakes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-scandinavia, crime-fiction, translated-crime-fiction

After finishing The Man on the Balcony, I decided to go back for more of Martin Beck and his colleagues, and I'm so happy I did. The Laughing Policeman is the fourth in the Martin Beck series, and so far it is my favorite from this writing duo.

While the police in Stockholm are busy at the American Embassy where a protest against the Vietnam War has turned very ugly, patrolmen Kvant and Kristiansson, the Keystone Cop-ish police officers who just so happened to have inadvertently solved the case i After finishing The Man on the Balcony, I decided to go back for more of Martin Beck and his colleagues, and I'm so happy I did. The Laughing Policeman is the fourth in the Martin Beck series, and so far it is my favorite from this writing duo.

While the police in Stockholm are busy at the American Embassy where a protest against the Vietnam War has turned very ugly, patrolmen Kvant and Kristiansson, the Keystone Cop-ish police officers who just so happened to have inadvertently solved the case in The Man on the Balcony, are just biding their time until their shift is over. Crossing from the municipality of Solna into Stockholm, they're flagged down by a man walking a dog who reports an accident. The two drive on over and discover a doubledecker bus with lights on and doors open off the road. Inside the bus are several dead bodies, all gunned down in their seats, and the scene looks like a massacre. The homicide squad headed by Martin Beck arrives and discovers that one of their own is dead on the bus -- a young police inspector named Ake Stenstrom. There are very little clues on the scene, thanks to Kvant and Kristiansson, and as far as motive, until Beck and his men can go through the list of victims, it is not readily apparent. To bring the gunman to justice and close the case Beck and his team will have to put in long hours and examine the lives of all of the dead. To discover why this happened, the most important fact they need to discern is the identity of the intended target, not a simple task in the least.

Sjöwall and Perlöö's plotting and storyline are not the only reasons this book and the series work so well. The authors also continue to develop their characters' personalities so that the people in the Stockholm homicide squad become more and more familiar to the reader as time progresses. Those two factors, along with their ability to evoke what they consider the social ills and the events of the time period make these short novels so compelling. In the space of only 211 pages the authors manage to set up the plot, detail the often-frustrating investigation, catch up on what's going on with Beck, Kollberg and the other main players, and wrap things up in a more than satisfying conclusion. They keep the superfluous prose away, giving the reader only what's needed to keep the story going. There are no torrid love affairs, no in-depth soul searching or major subplots to sidetrack the reader -- Sjöwall and Perlöö are probably among the best crime writers in terms of their focus on the crime at hand, while still managing to continue the growth of their beloved characters. The time frame is well established through their use of current events like the Vietnam War protests and American serial killers of the time (especially Charles Whitman and the U of Texas shootings). They also have this ability to make the reader laugh in the midst of terrible crimes; here they go on about psychologists and profiling of serial killers in a discussion that was priceless.

I'd definitely recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who wants to read something intelligent in the realm of crime fiction, and to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction in particular. You can't read just the current popular authors and feel like you have experienced the best that the Nordic countries have to offer -- this series is a no miss, for sure. ...more

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Aug 02, 2023 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the fourth book in the Martin Beck series, published in 1968. I am really enjoying this series and am so grateful that someone in my 'Reading the Detectives,' book group suggested these.

On a wet November evening in Stockholm, the police are dealing with a protest against the American embassy. In fact, those not involved with what they think is the major issue in the city, almost stumble across what is, in fact, the major event. A busy is found, with eight people dead on board and one in ...more

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Sep 22, 2013 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, silver-age-mystery, mount-tbr-2014, police-procedural, swedish-mystery, award-winner

A cold rainy November night in Stockholm finds every available on-duty policeman facing off with a mob of anti-Vietnam protestors. The crime underworld and the riffraff of the city take advantage of the force's preoccupation to carry out plans of their own as well as random vandalism. And one unknown man climbs aboard a late-night double-decker bus and shoots nine people. Eight people, including the bus driver and a member of the force's detective squad, are killed instantly....one man's life ha A cold rainy November night in Stockholm finds every available on-duty policeman facing off with a mob of anti-Vietnam protestors. The crime underworld and the riffraff of the city take advantage of the force's preoccupation to carry out plans of their own as well as random vandalism. And one unknown man climbs aboard a late-night double-decker bus and shoots nine people. Eight people, including the bus driver and a member of the force's detective squad, are killed instantly....one man's life hang's by a thread and Martin Beck and his fellow officers hope he'll live long enough to give them a clue to the killer's identity. Because other clues are rather thin on the ground.

The press and their superior officers are ready to call this the work of a psychotic mass-murderer--despite that being more typical elsewhere than in Sweden--but the longer the investigation goes on, the more convinced Beck and Lennart Kollberg become that an unusual amount of planning went into this murder spree. As they take a closer look at each of the victims, searching for a possible key target, they keep asking themselves:

Why was Åke Stenström, a young detective in Beck's squad, on that double-decker bus?

That question leads them to an unsolved murder and when they find the answer to that, then the pieces begin to fall into place on this more recent crime.

This novel, a 1971 Edgar award-winner (originally written 1968), is a knock-out police procedural and a fine example of Swedish crime fiction from the late 1960s. The books are advertised as the Martin Beck series, but this novel focuses more on Kollberg than on anyone. Kollberg is the one who gets to know Stenström's girlfriend and really begins to put together the clues that will lead to the solution. The investigation is definitely a team effort--many others are out gathering clues, but Kollberg takes the lead. It was good to get a closer look at Kollberg and his home life and to understand a bit better what makes him tick.

The writing is spare and clean, yet very gripping. Even though there is a lot of waiting and sifting through false leads in this story, the reader is never bored. It is easy to see why this novel was an award-winner. I thoroughly enjoyed another visit with Beck's crime team.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks! ...more

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Nov 23, 2016 Cat {Wild Night In} rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-reading-challenge, crime-thriller, historical-fiction, travelling-world-in-books, scandinavian-lit

Fourth in the Martin Beck series (but the first novel from it that I’ve read). It was very easy to slide into the novel without getting lost or confused or not knowing things that had been mentioned in previous novels.

This novel opens with the gunning down of a busload of people, including Stenström, a police officer who is a member of Stockholm Homicide Division. What follows is a near-perfect textbook investigation to find out not only who committed the murder, but why.

The “Laughing Policeman” ...more

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