Sweden Books

In November 1968 there was a big demonstration by the American Embassy in Stockholm in spite of the pouring rain. Two policemen find a bus that went off the road. Eight bodies, one a detective, and a lot of shells. Detective Martin Beck is called from home for this mass murder. Chapter 8 has the press conference; little was known. Could a madman have planned this so carefully? When they question the girlfriend of the slain detective they learn he had been working hard on a secret investigation (Chapter 13). Martin Beck and the other detectives began questioning the people who knew the victims. The last victim mentioned a name before dying (Chapter 14). They identified the murder weapon: a Finnish Suomi Lahti from WW II (Chapter 18). Their psychologists wrote a profile on a mass murderer. Usually quite normal and polite until they suddenly erupt. (Is this profile right?)

Chapter 19 recapitulated what they know about the nine victims from the bus. They know detective Stenström was skilled at shadowing. How could he have been surprised? Following the leads results in the name of the unknown victim (Chapter 22). Another lead results in the arrest of narcotic dealers (Chapter 23). Martin Beck figures out the 16-year old unsolved murder that Stenström was investigating, the most hopeless case (Chapter 24). The police activity affected the underworld, they helped in the hunt. The investigation continued. Then there was a break on the identification of a car seen where a body was dumped 16 years ago (Chapter 28). Newly recovered facts point to a person on the list of suspects (Chapter 29). The solution to the crime occurs in Chapter 30. At the end Martin Beck received a telephone call from the detective who searched Stenström's apartment and found a name. Beck began to laugh.

This story seems implausible in having people killed in public when only one is a danger to a murderer. The authors have used a mass murder to create an unusual plot. Could over 60 shots be fired with no one hearing them?

George Santayana

On a rainy Stockholm night a gunman opens fire on Stockholm bus, killing eight passengers and critically wounding a ninth. The crime scene is bloody and chaotic. Critical clues may have been destroyed when the first police officers arrive on the scene and trample through the bus. Police Superintendent Martin Beck is placed in charge of the investigation. There appear to be no clues and no apparent motive. His task is the monumental one of taking this chaotic scene and imposing enough order on it so that clues may be found, leads followed, and the criminal or criminals brought to justice. The physical and mental burdens of the job are compounded by emotional burdens once Beck discovers that one of the victims happens to be a detective who worked in Martin Beck's unit. That is the plot that unfolds in the opening pages of Per Wahloo and Maj Sowall's remarkably well-crafted "The Laughing Policeman".

The Laughing Policeman, published in Sweden in 1968 and in the U.S. in 1971 (winner of that year's Edgar Award for Best Novel), was the fourth in a series of ten Martin Beck mysteries written by the Swedish, husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. The plot and structure of the four Beck mysteries I've read to date do not deviate from the standard format found in any well-written police procedural. However, what sets the Beck mysteries apart is their location and character development. Naturally enough, each book is a small window into Swedish life and culture in the 1960s and 1970s when the books were written. Further, as the series develops the character of Beck and his colleagues evolve and the reader slowly obtains a real feel for Beck and his fellow police officers. By the fourth book, the personalities of Martin Beck and his police colleagues have developed to the point where the reader almost has an instinct for how each will react to a given situation. At the same time the characters, especially Beck, remain far from predictable. However, they are already fully formed in the authors' minds and for that reason I suggest reading these books in order.

I do not think it appropriate to divulge any details about a police procedural such as this so I will leave it to the reader to see how Martin Beck and his crew slowly put together the pieces of the puzzle behind the killings. The authors are quite good at keeping the pot boiling. They don't reveal too much too early and they do not rely on Sherlock Holmes-like deductions to take the place of crafting a story. Additionally, the writing is filled with funny moments and asides. In its own way the Beck mysteries provide a very interesting glimpse into Swedish life and culture in the 1960s and 1970s. In the hands of Wahloo and Sjowall, Beck's conversations are filled with both blunt exchanges and very sly, sardonic comments that kept me chucking throughout. I was also impressed with how the authors have slowly continued to build up their protagonists back stories. By this volume in the series the reader has a pretty good idea as to the home lives and personal idiosyncrasies of all the major characters. They are free from stereotype and make reading the book a more enjoyable experience.

The Laughing Policeman was a good read, one of those books that you feel you must finish just one more chapter before heading off to bed or back to work. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

Martin Beck and Lennart Kohlberg are playing chess. They are police officers assigned to the homicide squad. It is November 1967 in Solna, a suburb of Stockholm. The officers discover a double decker bus filled with dead people including a dead policeman. On that date there had been a demonstration at the American embassy protesting the War in Vietnam. The dead policeman was one of the officers assigned to the homicide unit, Ake Senstrom. His service-revolver is pulled out. Senstrom always kept his watch on the precise time and thus it is possible to measure the time of the assault accurately since the watch has stopped. The officers assume the attack on the bus was made by one man. The weapon is probably a submachine gun. The officers interview the family members and friends of the deceased persons. A clue emerges. The gun used may have been Finnish. The police have no Swedish precedents for mass murder. They have to use American cases as their models! The dead policeman, it seems, was good at shadowing. The dead policeman's girl friend tells the officers she believes that Ake was using her as a sort of guinea pig. It is determined that Senstrom was shadowing a blackmailer. The victim of the blackmail, the perpetrator of an unsolved murder, killed Senstrom and everyone else on the bus to maintain his cover. The solution to the crime is worked out winningly. The portraits of the officers and their families are interesting and charming.

This book was favorably mentioned in the Mystery Lovers Book of Quotations so I thought I'd try it out--my 1st by the author duo. While it contains some social commentary, this is not central to either the story or the characterizations. The characters are the heart of the book IMHO. The detectives are a team and quite a few provide important details leading to the solution of the case. The "hot" case of group murder leads to an old Cold Case (alas, no Lilly though). The authors carefully provide personal details of the team members as they go about a very methodical approach to the solution. There isn't any star (e.g. Holmes or Poirot) here. The plusses & minuses of various policemen are well depicted in a realistic manner. Some of the clues can help the reader to figure out some of the solution. The Stockholm described (though 40 years or so ago) is very different than the one the tourist sees--and I was there in 1968. The book is cleverly written & entertaining for the most part; the story is consistent & logical. Overall its a pretty good police story.

The Laughing Policeman is the best known book of the multi-volume Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Despite the title there is little laughing in this grim and gloomy yet classic police procedural. The book is marked by the sparse dialogue and buttoned-down personalities of the Swedish characters. (The book was later made into a movie of the same name starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern, but set in San Francisco!)

The entire detective force of Sweden is assigned to solve the murder of 9 people on a Stockholm bus in 1968 (an anti-war - Vietnam that is - demonstration is the backdrop for the book's opening). One of the murdered is Ake Stenstrom, a Stockholm detective. His presence on the bus begins to unravel the mystery of this seemingly random and insane mass murder. Insane it may be, but never random.

Each detective obsessively follows their own path and the paths lead into Stockholm's underworld. Could an old unsolved murder somehow be related to this insane bloodshed many years later? Mass murder so un-Swedish after all - the police don't even have any psychological profiles they can use. Can the always miserable Beck or his top-notch partner Lennart Kollberg crack the case?

Highly recommended for fans of detective stories with an international bent.

What a privilege to share the inner life of Dag Hammarskjold! The writings are personal and betray the very real struggles we all face and so rarely give word to. This is my second copy of this book and while it is not a literary giant, it is an amazing reflection of the soul of a remarkable man, the markings of his life.

Reading the posted reviews can give someone an idea of what a great treasure this book. Wouldn't be without it, as I find after many years I still get something fresh at each reading. He was incredibly loved by the UN staff, and the pages of Markings give you real insight as to why this was. And admirable man, an admirable book. Certainly a book to be re-read NOW -- as the world is going so terrible wrong -- if we are to learn what the path of righteousness is all about. A true reflection that believes in loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God above all things.

This is my FOURTH COPY of this book; lent one out that was never returned... guess they liked it too! I always admired the late Secy-Genl of the UN, which is why I first picked up and bought this book. Don't miss out on a wonderful book!

This is a book of mental depth not often found on a public bookshelf. Dag Hammarskjold kept his journal consistantly/regularly and then left written permission for it to be printed following his death. I found it to be, primarily, a "true profile" of the man, and then also an accurate historical document as I traced Hammarskjold's innermost thoughts connected to the history of the time. I believe this book has held our attention over so many years, because most humans on a spiritual quest can truely relate to his inner thoughts of relationship to God/ soul/ consciousness.

It feels special to "know" such a good, thoughtful, God-loving and honest man; it feels wonderful, these days especially, to walk with him in his political functioning and realize how lucky we were to have had such a man in an important world government position.

Hammarskjold was a Swedish diplomat who served as secretary-general of the United Nations at the height of the Cold War (and whose death in a plane crash in Africa in 1961 may not have been an accident). Throughout his life he struggled with balancing the tension between the active life and the contemplative life that always faces the political intellectual. This book is his private journal, in which he struggles with a deeply personal and private faith in the context of a vocation that called him to one of the most visible and influential offices in international politics. That struggle, which emerges in bits and pieces in entries that span nearly four decades, both celebrates life and indulges deep feelings of doubt and isolation.

"Markings" is far more a work of philosophy than autobiography. Hammarskjold's frend W.H. Auden contributes a moving foreword that supplies a context for Hammarskjold's writing. But as the foreword notes, Hammarskjold does not "make a single direct reference to his career as an international civil servant, to the persons he met, or the historical events of his time in which he played an important role."

Interesting story; good description of Swedish society in the era, but the story downright plods during the ship passage to America. Would have been better if Moberg had made that relatively boring passage shorter and moved on past the landing in this part of the series. He spends a lot of pages describing the hopes and fears of each of the emigrants in the group; too much, in my opinion. This 1st novel in the series did not inspire me to get the rest and continue reading the entire story.

This is an epic work by its Swedish author. Translated from Swedish into English, this beautifully written book of historical fiction was first published in the early nineteen fifties and met with rave reviews at the time. It is part of a four part opus, the first of which is "The Emigrants". It is followed by three additional books, "Unto a Good Land", "The Settlers", and "Last Letter From Home".

In this, the first volume, the author lays the ground work for the emigration of a Swedish family, grounding it in the reasons for the exodus of so many Swedes from their mother country in the middle of the 19th century. The focus of the book is on the family, relatives, and friends of Karl Oscar Nilsson, a peasant farmer who unceasingly worked his farm, only to find that, no matter what he did, he could not progress and would continue to live on the cusp of total poverty. Gathering up his family and friends of the family, he decides to take the monumental step of making a fresh start by emigrating to the new world, specifically the United States of America.

The book focuses on the set backs the Nilsson family encounters in Sweden, as it is their travails that act as the catalyst for such journey. The book grounds the reader in the Swedish social and religious mores of the time, and the impact that such would have on this particular group of people. The author enables the reader to understand why some would risk all to begin life anew in an unknown part of the world.

This book is the story of the first leg of their journey, which takes the reader through the nature of their lives in Sweden, the decision to make such a journey, and their sea voyage to the new world. I enjoyed the first volume so much that I look forward to continuing that journey with them by reading the remaining three volumes.

I received this book as a gift from our Swedish exchange student's parents. It was wonderful! Finished it in a day and am now after the other three.

While it may or may not totally accurately portray Sweden, it is historical FICTION and most of it tracks with what I know of European history in general. Of course I cannot read it in the original Swedish, but the translated version does flow well.

Now I can't wait to find out what happens to Karl Oskar and his family!

This book describes the Swedish emmigration to the US in the mid 1800's when one quarter of the Swedish population left for the US. One quarter! This book will give you insight into the myriad of reasons and the myriad of personality types that made the arduous and life threatening journey. If you've ever thought of the Swedish as all being the same, don't. If you've ever thought that sweet little Sweden couldn't have social problems, don't.

This book is appropriate to the current spirited discussion of illegal Mexican immigration into the US. It is a good way to understand a big event in Swedish history as well as something about the causes of human migrations. On top of that the book is sad -- a Grapes of Wrath sort of sad.....


BTW, I gave this book 4 stars but in general I give fewer stars that the average reviewer.....I'm a harhser critic.

I was born in Sweden and grew up in France (Swedish mom, French dad). I now live in the US and finally decided to read this book. I am currently starting the 3rd one and can not get my hand of it.

The Emigrants is an amazing piece of art, a book with so many themes, characters and information! The book is at times very grim, but also shows some strong optimism regarding condition improvement.

I would recommend this book to everybody with a Swedish background, but also anybody whose ancestors immigrated to America during the 19th century, and more generally anybody interested in the subject and looking for a great read. You'll get so attached to the Nilsson family you won't be able to stop reading.

this was my favorite book in the series. I love the idea of a girl king, and Kristina always stands up for herself. this was a wonderful book, and i highly recommend it. Ant to Beatrice D: I'm sorry if you didn't like the part where the mother cries. You can't change history.

My two girls have read just about all the princess diaries in this series now (and Ive dipped into them too) and this must be the best of the lot. And they're all pretty good. Yes, Christina was named king, which signified that she had power, not that there was any confusion about her gender. Quite a remarkable, real person, and not someone I'd ever heard of before.

A good thing about these books is that they deal with the real concerns and pleasures of girls of this age, princesses included, as well as the situations only princesses face. And they are all based on people who were historically real, and are well researched as far as we can tell - although one of my daughters tells me there was a tiny gaffe in the one on Elizabeth (who became Elizabeth the first of England), where she was 11 at the beginning of the book although historically she hadn't had her 11th birthday yet. But she says this is not a problem! She wants me to say that she loves them so much, she wants to write her own princess diary book.

I think that this was the best one out of all of the Royal Diary seris. I seriously could not put it down when I had too.

Carolyn Mayer, has nicely put up the picture of a girl who wants to be King of her country, not Queen!Kristina, is under her beloved aunt's care, due to her original mother's bad care, and mistreatment she had set upon Kristina.Kristina, was meant to be a boy, was thought to be a boy, until, her aunt took her naked and showed her parents her true gender.Due to this, Kristina's mother decided to make poor Kristina's life a misery,even though her father rejoiced and nicknamed her the girl king!

Kristina makes many friends, all boys, and learn to grow up like a boy.She surveys the prisoners of the palace, and surveys her friends changing, as they consider the beautiful princess as their future wife!Carolyn Meyer has created a beautiful character and a good book, worthy of the Royal Diary series.All fans should consider reading this book, it's really worth your precious reading time!

This book is really, really good.I really enjoyed it.This book is about Kristina,princess of Sweden.Kristina is a strong-minded character in this book who wants to follow the moral of Queen Elizabeth,to never marry.Kristina,though a girl enjoys the life of a boy.After one of her friend's death.Kristina's life turns upside-down and is puzzled at her friend's attraction towards her.This book is one of a kind and one of the best Royal Diary Books.It's as interesting and creative as Kazunomiya,the best royal Diary book yet.I strongly reccomend this book.It unlike 'The Lady Of Palenque' has strong characters that you feel friendly with and will soon love.Some of the parts in this book are about the politics in Sweden and those parts are very interesting.Also parts in this book are touching and sad.You may not be able to get this book but try hard to get it.It's good!I couldn't put it down.

This book is an excellent read - quick, succint and to the point. Content is still relevant in today's marketplace.

This short book is an examination of three companies that Jan Carlzon worked for and how he turned them around. The first is unremarkable and is not relevant to his later insights. He was responsible for a company which was a subsidiary of a airline which sold holidays. He reduced costs to get it through an economic downturn.

The next job he had was working for a Swedish domestic airline. The airline was losing money but the ability to cut costs was limited. The reason for this was that the airline schedules and routes had been determined politically. There was limited ability to cut costs. The strategy he used to overcome the problem was to try to increase revenue by fare discounting. The problem was that previous fair discounting attempts had not been that effective. He developed a advertising strategy which aimed at expressing the cost by referring it to notes of currency. This was successful and traffic increased not by an anticipated 20,000 but by 120,000.

Following that he was put in charge of SAS an international airline company that was owned by Norway Sweden and Denmark. His strategy to make the airline profitable was to sell full fare seats. Up to this time Carlzon had made a habit of firing internal marketing units in his airlines and depending on the knowledge of his staff at the front line. He was able to use this knowledge to make his airline attractive to business class passengers.

He removed first class and created a business class.(In his view the only people who used first class with any regularity were airline executives) The business class had a distinct section of the plane which was curtained off. They got on the plane last and left first. They had a distinct waiting area. He worked out that the most significant thing of importance to business class travellers was prompt departure. He asked one of his employees to come up with a strategy of moving to 100% success of leaving at the right time. They came up with a strategy which identified the reasons for airplanes leaving late. They were:

* Waiting for passengers on connecting flights
* Waiting as a result of meals not turning up for the passengers
* Waiting for late staff
* Compressing flights

A strategy was worked out that would cost an estimated $1.8 million dollars to make flights go on time. From now on no one would wait for connecting flights. Passengers would be put on other carriers. If meals did no turn up it was thought that in most cases there would be a surplus and if there was not customers could be given vouchers for restaurant meals at the next embarkation point. If cabin (as opposed to flight) staff did not turn up the aircraft would take off. The compression of flights means that if a plane was half full it would be cancelled with the aim of trying to fill up the next plane to a full load. Flights simply were to be flown regardless of whether the flight was full. This in fact was going to be the major part of the $1.8 million cost.

What happened was that the strategy of flying on time was so successful flight compression was not a problem. All flights were now full and the strategy only cost $200,000 with the pay off the increased revenue from the full flights.
Another strategy was Carlzon's moth balling of newly purchased airbuses. One of the things which characterizes the airline industry is the use of new technology. To this extent the industry is production driven. The advantage of the new airbuses was that they had a lower cost per-passenger mile. The problem with them was that they were a bigger aircraft and for them to run cost effectively the airline would have to have less scheduled flights and have more people flying on each scheduled flight. This however had the potential downside that the airline would lose attraction to the customer as there was less flexibility in the schedule. For that reason Carlzon kept his older DC 9 aircraft in service as he was customer focused.

The conclusions that Carlzon draws about how to run a company is that marketing and sales are the key. The reality of a company and how it is seen is based on the individual moments of contact that a customer has with the representatives of the company. As these contacts are so important it is his view that the representatives of the company at the client interface be highly motivated and skilled. Further that they have the ability to make decisions about what they do. Lastly that they be in a position to feedback to the management what the realities are. In his view a flatter empowered structure is the key to the success of the modern corporation.

The sorts of things that he did were counter intuitive. It would be thought that aircraft which flew cheaper would be good for the bottom line. It makes good sense to compress flights so that aircraft fly full. Yet it was these things which potentially had the cost of reducing market share. Managers who were isolated from the customers might think it was attractive to cut costs in this way but front line staff are better able to sense the market dynamics of the industry.

Book Reading Style
This book is an easy read.

Opinion about Content
I believe it is informative and has great value to pass on. Recommend read.
Information is dated. Born out of the `Total Quality Management' concept of the sixties. Methodology concepts are based on authors personal business approach presented in a self-help format based on how he ran three businesses. The author talks about some of the shortcomings of this business strategy and hints that it does not meet a business plan on all levels. It seems to be a short-term fix and once achieved needs to be revisited, redefined, redirected, and reinitiated. It is one mans approach to running a business that worked. It could have worked because he is right on, or he applied a new approach at the right time, or his personal enthusiasm, or his dedication. It is one part of an overall business strategy and if implemented needs to be understood and not half employed.
Key Concept
Business strategy orientated around customer service accomplished by delegating responsibility and empowering employees.

How Achieved
The authors premises are define your customer, identify the customer needs, focus your business to meet those needs, and implement the services to meet those needs. In a service oriented business plan the author stresses decentralizing the company structure, delegating responsibilities to the frontline employee, trusting and empowering the frontline employees to handle those responsibilities. He believes this approach better meets the customer needs vs. the more bureaucratic process of company policies, procedures, forms, and chain of command.

How to Apply
Delegate responsibility, this is a concept we hear repeatedly. To delegate responsibility we have to empower the employee to perform the task and resolve issues. Empowering the employee is key; it is a principle that allows the employee to handle the delegated responsibility.
Two main ingredients to making this work; one providing the employee with the proper tools and; two having confident in the employee's ability to handle the responsibility independently. This second point is an unspoken truth that can be scary because it releases control.
The author talks about how empowering the employee flattens the hierarchical pyramid and changes the role of middle mangers from managing procedures to leaders.

I had heard about this book 5-6 years ago, and have used the concept of Moments of Truth without having read the book. The book is small very readable and has fleshed out the Moment very well. Anybody in business should read this book, and should have it in their library. It would change your thinking about who and what is important in dealing with customers.

Really good book, worth every cent of money. In good and simple language described all complicated problems and solutions: company strategy, decentralization and control, motivation and targeting.
Not suprised, that the author was quoted so often in business books, especially concerning service.
Of course, too many things changed since date of issue. But as far as I see, all responded problems are still the same.
Enjoy your reading!

You can't beat Sjowall and Wahloo for police procedurals. This book is pretty old, but great on the 4th (and 5th and 6th) reading. Great service and price on these reissues. ~ Anne, DC

For those who have read all of Commisar Wallender's cases there are two directions to go in. One is forward, to Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridasen, another is backward in time to the mysteries of Sjöwall and Wahlöö. both paths should be taken! S & W write clearly in a psycho-sociological vein that must (as he admits) have influenced Mankell. In S & W there is less introspection on the part of Inspector Beck, and no parallel description (until the end) of the mentality of the criminal. But like Mankell, the criminal paints a clear psychological picture of why he acted as he did. I'm now reading my second S & W, have bought four.

This review is based on the Norwegian translation of Roseanna.

facts are what we need." Crane Wilbur

Facts are few and far between for Detective Inspector Martin Beck in "Roseanna". A girl's body is found by a dredger in a lock near Sweden's Lake Vattern. The body is naked and there are no clues as to her identity and the reasons for her death. Martin Beck is called up from Stockholm to assist the local authorities in their investigation. Through a process of time-consuming grunt work and dogged determination Beck and his colleagues try first to find the pieces to this jigsaw puzzle of a mystery. They first have to identify the dead girl. Next they have to identify the crime scene (one of a number of passenger ferries). Finally the have to identify a possible suspect out of more than eighty potential killers.

The pace of the book tracks the pace of the investigation. In the first few months of the case little progress is made. However, this affords the readers the opportunity to get a glimpse of Beck and his colleague's character and personalities as they go about the daily grind of their police work. The pace quickens and the excitement mounts as the jigsaw puzzle pieces begin to fall into place.

Roseanna was the first in a series of ten Martin Beck mysteries written by the Swedish, husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. The plot and structure of the four Beck mysteries I've read to date do not deviate from the standard format found in any well-written police procedural. However, what sets the Beck mysteries apart is their location and character development. Naturally enough, each book is a small window into Swedish life and culture in the 1960s and 1970s when the books were written. Further, as the series develops the character of Beck and his colleagues evolve and the reader slowly obtains a real feel for Beck and his fellow police officers.

Roseanna was not the best of the Beck books I've read but it was good enough that I stayed up a bit later than I should in order to finish it. Even thought this may not be the best of the bunch I do suggest that any reader new to the series start with Roseanna in order to appreciate the evolution of Beck and his family and fellow officers.

If you like police procedurals with a bit of an exotic flair you should enjoy the Martin Beck stories. They rank alongside Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin series set in Russia and Georges Simenon's Maigret stories set in France as enjoyable, well-written stories set on distant shores. Recommended. L. Fleisig

"Roseanna" introduces Martin Beck, an overworked but brilliant Swedish policeman. When the body of a young woman is found in a nearby lake, Beck is called in to assist. The case proves frustrating, and months pass before any progress is made. Fortunately, Beck is persistent and sticks with the case, even as it begins to haunt his life. Originally released in 1967, the plot doesn't rely on high-tech police techniques - just good old-fashioned story-telling.

Married authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo crafted this fine novel, as well as subsequent entries in the Martin Beck series. The style of writing is sometimes dry and always factual, which adds a great deal of realism to the story. At times, the translation is somewhat awkward, particularly in the dialogue, but it doesn't detract much from the overall impact of the book. Vintage Crime/ Black Lizard has re-released the series, and as always they've done a beautiful job. Recommended for fans of police/detective stories - I intend to read more entries in the series.

I've long intended to check out the 10-book Martin Beck series by Swedish husband/wife team Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, and the 40th anniversary of this first book in the series seems like a good excuse. For some reason, some readers seem to think the book takes place in the '70s or late '60s, but it was written in 1963-4, published in Sweden in 1965, and appeared in English in 1967. The story begins with the discovery of a woman's corpse in Lake Vattern in central Sweden, roughly equidistant from Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Oslo. The police from the nearby town of Motala start investigating and when it's established that the woman was strangled, the homicide experts from Stockholm are called in.

Enter Martin Beck, a chain-smoking homicide detective roughly in his late 30s. Beck is a classic example of the workaholic policeman that one can find in crime fiction and film the world over. He barely speaks to his wife and children, and prefers long hard hours at the office to a home life that offers him nothing. It's such a bleak portrait that the reader is hard-pressed to imagine Beck's marriage (or lungs) surviving the series. The story is a very straightforward, and almost dry procedural account of the case. The first problem the team encounters is in identifying the victim, as she doesn't match any missing persons reports and as part of the route for touring the Gota canal system, Lake Vattern is a high-traffic tourist area, with lots of tour boats coming through. The second hurdle is that once she is identified, months have passed, and tracking down everyone who was on her tour cruise and taking statements proves very difficult. Finally, even once a suspect is identified, there's no physical evidence or eyewitness, so Beck and his laconic team must somehow force the murderer into revealing himself in another way.

As a procedural, this is a very strong book, illustrating all the police methodology available at the time. It also does a good job of showing how important it is for the detective to form a psychological portrait of the victim, a concept that was not particularly widespread forty years ago. The combination of procedure and psychology make for a decent crime novel, although the bone dry prose isn't going to enthrall anyone. The authors famously said that their books were intended to challenge conventional Swedish morality, and without revealing anything, the murder and motive in this book are clearly built around this premise. A solid beginning to a promising series.

This book was made into a film twice in Sweden, once in 1967, and again in 1993. Sadly neither of these appear to be available in English in any format.

I have read the two other novels in this trilogy by another translator. They were superior and more exciting I could not put them down. This book translated by Jeremiah Curtin is absolutely terrible, I can't force myself to read it. I can not recommend this translation of a terrific trilogy.

I own a ninety year old translation of With Fire and Sword. The translation is a bit stilted (as was our English back then),but the cover is falling off from my avid reading. When I found the Kuniczak translation of The Deluge, I couldn't wait to read more, and this does not disappoint. The fresh idiomatic English is mostly smooth, (although a few expressions stand out as more modern slang). Once again, Pan Zagloba roars across the pages and the "little colonel" Wolodyovski does his best defending the Motherland, and at the same time, to catch the eye of pretty girls. The drama and characters of 17th century Poland and Lithuania cannot help to inspire an interest in this area. I was amazed when I read the true story of the politics and shifting alliances of the region, and to imagine a powerful SWEDISH army (oxymoron these days). A true classic that never gets old.

By all means, buy this edition if it is your only way to enter the marvelous world that Sienkiewicz has given to Poland and to posterity. Discover why the Trilogy has been a best-seller in its native land for more than a century. Epic adventure, star-crossed love, villains, heroes, treachery, heartbreak and humor. Sienkiewicz wrote to lift up the hearts of his people, and if he doesn't lift yours, see a cardiologist immediately.

But beg or borrow if you can, and steal if you must, the translation by W.S. Kuniczak that was published in the early 1990s. Discover what happens when a novelist translates. Kuniczak is true not just to the sentences, but to the spirit of the work. He blows the dust out of the century-old writing and lets it shine. And for readers not on intimate terms with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th Century (admit it), he effortlessly drops in helpful hints.

Here's how Curtin starts:

There was in Jmud a powerful family, the Billeviches, descended from Mendog, connected with many, and respected, beyond all, in the district of Rossyeni. ... Their native nest, existing to this day, was called Billeviche; ... In later times they branched out into a number of houses, the members of which lost sight of one another. They all assembled only when there was a census at Rossyeni of the general militia of Jmud on the plain of the invited Estates.

And Kuniczak:

In the part of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania that was known as Zmudya, and which antedated the times of recorded history, there lived an ancient family named Billevitch, widely connected with many other houses of Lithuanian gentry, and respected more than any other in the Rosyen region. ... Their family seat, known as Billevitche ... so that in time they split into several branches that seldom saw each other. Some of them got together now and then when the Zmudyan gentry gathered for the annual military census near Rosyen on a plain called Stany...

Honestly, which version would you rather spend 1700 pages with? The native nest or the family seat?

(And just by the by, when will a smart publisher sell the Sienkiewicz Trilogy alongside Tolkien? Why do they squirrel it away with the Serious Literature in Translation that mostly gathers dust? There's millions and millions of dollars in these books, lying around, waiting for someone to market them properly.)

and that never happened before. I will confess I picked up this book because of the cover. I was waiting for a study group at the main library at Boston College. It was a new release and had on the cover a beatiful painting of charging polish hussars. I said to myself this looks real cool. I read the first chapter standing at the lobby because my stupid study group was late. I was instantly addicted. I borrowed and finished it in less than a week and then borrowed that second volume.

It was such a moving experience. Pan Andy, Fat Zagloba, and Mikey just leapt from the pages and off I went on a high adventure with these guys. This is better than Tolkien or any fantasy adventure ever written. I really felt like I was with these guys trying to free their country from oblivion.

The stormy romance between Andei Kmicic and Olenka Billevich seems like an allegory of the relationship between the Polish szlachta and Poland itself. The petty squabbling, quarreling, and self-serving behavior of the szlachta alienates them from their country as Kmicic's headstrong and reckless behavior alienates him from the woman he loves. "It seemed to Kmita then that Poland and Olenka were one and the same, and that he had doomed them both and handed them voluntarily to the Swedes" (Kuniczak translation, p. 753). Sienkiewicz obviously wishes to leave a clear lesson here for the free people of any nation.

The story foreshadows two issues that emerged during the Second World War: the Germans who were "only following orders" and the Vichy French who collaborated with the Germans. What is one supposed to do when his superior orders him to do something that is obviously wrong? At what point does acquiescence to a victorious invader for the purpose of avoiding further harm to one's country become collaboration with an enemy? Can someone collaborate with the enemy for the purpose, as Janusz Radziwill claimed, of turning on him and overthrowing him at a more opportune moment? (The few colonels who went along with Radziwill were in a semi-feudal system in which a retainer obeyed his lord and the lord was supposed to obey the King. Radziwill's foreign mercenaries had no such dilemma because they owed their loyalty only to their paymaster.)

During the 1970s, the United States began to lose the manufacturing capability that led to victory in the Second World War. Our Congress has its own Opalinskis and Radziwills, people whose first priority is their own political success as opposed to service to the country. They are unwilling or unable to understand that wealth must be created through agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, and that it cannot be legislated into existence. The Senatorial filibuster is now used to block judicial appointments, as the Liberum Veto was once used to break up the Sejm. The jester Ostrozka showed how the handwriting was on the wall for the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth's ideological successor and heir, the United States, needs to take the same warning very seriously lest it suffer the same fate.

This book is a must for all fans of Marcus Schenkenberg. He is so indcredibly good looking. I love his look, his body. He is great. And all the pictures inside are great, too. I hope there will be a second one. Hopefully, soon.

This book is a very beautiful book of photography. It's subject does not ask for the camera's attention, He demands it. I have a book collection on all type's of photography from 1930's to 2001, "This is one of my favorite."

Marcus Schenkenberg is incredibly photogenic, blessed with good height, ruggedly handsome looks and a body which closely resembles a Rodin sculpture.This book should soon find its way into every man and woman's bedroom.The photos are stunning and the articles are awsome.

Writing in 'Clothes Show' magazine in 1995, journalist Sylvia Patterson memorably declared: "Marcus Schenkenberg is so good-looking it is, frankly, preposterous. He's a cartoon fantasy man...his chest is a two-seater sofa!" It isn't simply that Marcus is so completely, breathtakingly beautiful - that much should be obvious to anyone who's ever seen his image in print, on film, on the Web, or even in the flesh - it's also because his inevitable success as 'the first male supermodel' prompted a renewed interest in men's clothing and hygiene at a time when the fashion industry seemed oblivious to this gaping hole in the market, and because he paved the way for an entirely new breed of celebrated male models, including Michael Bergin and the awesome Tyson Beckford, amongst others. Hence the title of this archetypal 'coffee table' book, "Marcus Schenkenberg New Rules" (1997), an uncredited collection of essays, interviews and observations from some of fashion's top-rank glitterati - Gianni Versace, Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon, et al - copyrighted by Universe Publishing, Marcus Schenkenberg himself, and Boss Models.

Anyone expecting a pure beefcake portfolio in the manner of Marcus' eye-popping calendar work may be slightly disappointed by the majority of photos in this book, which examines the 'Marcus' phenomenon almost exclusively within the context of his achievements as a fashion model. There's a smattering of wholly gratuitous body shots, of course (including a number of magazine covers, and a full-page, full-color study of his naked torso on p. 8), but even those images which feature partial nudity are as much concerned with selling the clothes as the man who's wearing them. There isn't a lot of biographical detail in the sparse text, either: We learn that he was born Marcus Lodewijk Schenkenberg van Mierop in Sweden - there are brief valentines from his mother and older brother, along with some endearing childhood photographs - but we're only given a vague summary of his early family life, and not even a specific date of birth (4 August 1968). We're also told that he came to America to seek his fortune in 1988 and was discovered by photographer Barry King the following year whilst rollerblading in Venice Beach, California. Immediately signed to an agency, Marcus struggled for a time to secure meaningful employment until 1991, when his appearance in a Calvin Klein advertising supplement (designed and photographed by Bruce Weber) in 'Vanity Fair' made him famous overnight. And no wonder: Amongst other things, the supplement contained the justly-famous shot of Marcus (reproduced here in slightly abbreviated form on p. 49) luxuriating beneath an open shower, totally naked except for a loose pair of jeans which he's holding between his legs, barely concealing his modesty - an image so erotic and powerful, it can take even the most jaded observer completely by surprise. The rest, as they say, is history...

And yet, much as the reader may be overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of Marcus' physical grandeur - augmented by a rigorous daily exercise regime, and cultivated by some of the world's finest photographers and stylists - the book ponders his modeling triumphs whilst revealing virtually nothing about Marcus the MAN. He describes himself as an ordinary guy in an extraordinary position, whose personal life amounts to little more than an endless round of photo-shoots and modeling assignments. And that's it, really. If there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, he isn't telling. Those who complain about our culture's tendency to define others simply by their appearance will find no reassurances here, with a subject who positively encourages us to view him at face value, a blank page on which we're allowed to write our wildest, raunchiest fantasies. In this case, it's more than enough. And while some of us still prefer his beefcake/calendar work, "New Rules" ultimately provides a useful - though somewhat shallow - overview of Marcus' life for newcomers and devotees alike.

Favorite photos: The 'angel' pose (p. 115) taken at the Givenchy Haute Couture Alexander McQueen Show in 1997, with a near-naked Marcus framed by two enormous feathered wings which emphasize and encapsulate the transcendent nature of his physical perfection. And Barry King's 1989 snapshot of Marcus (p. 38) rollerblading on Venice Beach whilst clad in little more than tight shorts and a bandanna, drawing our attention to the strong line of his body, his long legs and heavy chest, a vision of incomparable beauty. Like all the best pin-ups, Marcus Schenkenberg is naked even when fully clothed, inviting all-too-predictable comparisons with the likes of Michelangelo's David, amongst various other exalted works of art. Which isn't too far-fetched when you think about it. I mean, just LOOK at the guy! Who could possibly resist the temptation of such voluptuous splendor?...

Anyone familiar with the runways of Milan, New York, Paris should be familiar with this true demiGod..... he has been everywhere and with everyone... at least in his photoshoots! Unbelievably handsome with a body ( check out that torso! ) that goes on forever, Marcus is the thing that dreams are made of. Full of photos dating back to his discovery while rollerskating in a teensy pair of pink shorts, this book will satisfy every possible hunger that relates to Marcus. Universe has done it again with this volume of breathtaking splendor! *******Sigh!

Let me start by saying, I bought this book because of all the great reviews it got here. So, I thought I'd better give my opinion too, since it is so different!
This book includes everything you'd ever want to know about Garbo! So, it's great for the fan of hers who wants to know absolutley every detail about her. However, it is not written in an interesting way. It is like reading a "G" encyclopedia that is all about Garbo! It is long, boring, and difficult to read because the facts of her life are just layed out in chronological order. Not very engaging to read. I kept putting it down and reading other books, then going back to it.

The cause that I decided to grab that book written by Barry Paris is quite obvious. I live in Russia and all the information in Russian Garbo is concerned with can be generated to the following: Garbo was born a poor and wretched girl in Sweden, discovered by Maurice Stiller, went with him to Hollywood, made a couple of good pics, had a lot of lesbian affairs with almost everybody who was famous at that time beginning with Marlene Dietrich and ending with Marilyn Monroe, who was I presume a toddler by early 30's, then she made some money and had been living as a riche madame hanging out with the toffs for 50 years. I was totally dissatisfied with such ersatz being a kinda film connoisseur myself. I wanted information from the horse's mouth, so I bought the book. The book arrived in 4 days due to the expedient shipping.

It is not the first bio that I read in English though I was pleasantly surprised. First thing, there's not much that of the author himself. I mean he is not trying to describe, or evaluate, or judge Garbo, like what she had done under such and such circumstances, or how did she act to this or that. He is grounded with facts. No gossip. From time to time he says that yeah, there was that rumor concerning this and that. Speaking in general, I would call him contemplator from afar, though sometimes his insight is marvelous and hard to deny. Secondly, I like the style of the book: easy to read, good English, fabulous metaphors. Thirdly, author has tenacity towards describing any trifle facts. Of course, there are some author's thoughts that you can consider somewhat irrelevant but all in all the reading process is smooth. Last but not the least the book is saturated with great rare pictures of Greta Garbo. Jolly dialogues between Miss Garbo and Sam Green taken from audio tapes are the zest of the book.

As a conclusion, the book is worth reading since it deals with eine Frau, die ein Geheimnis des 20. Jahrhunderts darstellt.

I completely enjoyed this book. But then I am a devoted Garbo fan.
It is almost like a game trying to piece her life together to be able to understand her. I have read many books about her and this is one of the best for being able to inform people of her inner thoughts.

Thank You
Cathy

The best writing available on Garbo. The most comprehensive. Engaging. I was sorry there was not more info on her family. Her relationship with them. The people themselves. Some of it you can research to fill in the blanks. With G.G. though some of her enigma will always remain. Conversations and Recollections with Garbo, by Raymond Daum is also strongly recommended. This book was very thought provoking. Kata was an original. No were near as mysterious as the illusion/persona she crafted. If your anykind of armchair pychologist or avid researcher these books will be alot of fun. Thank you Mr. Paris. Rest in peace, Ms. G.

This biography is just as well-written and meticulously-researched as Mr. Paris's biography on Louise Brooks, which I had read prior to reading this one. He's a great celebrity biographer; he really does his homework, doesn't really get into the sleazy, sensational, and speculative trap that a lot of other celebrity biographers too often fall into, has a clear respect for his subject without fawning all over her, sugarcoating less than perfect aspects of her life, or holding her up as some sort of demigoddess, and clearly distinguishes between fact, outright fantasy and falsehood, and rumor and speculation that could go either way. This professional approach is keenly felt when he's writing about Garbo's relationships with men and women; there were some affairs of hers that were well-substatiated by outside evidence (most particularly her affair with Jack Gilbert), but other than that one can't really say how many relationships she may have had, or even that she were actively bisexual, though she clearly felt more comfortable emotionally with women. She wasn't entirely asexual either; though she did seem more comfortable alone, with no one invading her privacy and personal territory, she didn't go through life completely celibate either. And of course, Mr. Paris makes this topic one of only many covered in the book, since what she did or didn't do with anyone she may or may not have had a relationship with isn't really any of our business.

What makes this book, and its subject, so fascinating is the fact that the majority of Garbo's life was not lived on-camera. She had her childhood and adolescence, her years of acting in Sweden, Germany, and America in the Twenties and Thirties, and then retired from the screen in the early Forties (though there was a strong possibility she could have had to return to the screen in 1948, and many other times before and since). Mr. Paris even points out that, of the relatively small amount of films she was in, not a whole lot of them would be considered great cinematic works of art or classics. To paraphrase the old saying, she was rarely in a picture that was as good as she was. However, the force of her personality, her riveting screen presence, her unique and androgynous beauty, and her acting talent elevated these films beyond formula pictures, made one watch them in spite of the not always great scripts. Particularly interesting are the chapters on Garbo's life post-acting. Mr. Paris brings these years of retirement to vivid life, showing us that just because she had willingly dropped out of public view didn't mean she had ceased to live a fascinating life; in fact, in some ways her post-acting life was even more colorful and interesting. He also chronicles the real story of her famous desire to be alone, or to be left alone, and how the truth was more complex than just a shy recluse or a former moviestar who shunned most human contact. She led a very full and active social life during those nearly 50 years off-screen, and had friendships with a lot of high-profile and fascinating people, pursued a lot of diverse interests, had a lot of interesting thoughts, and generally lived a very interesting life. He also examines the truth behind why she never married; on the one hand, there's ample evidence to suggest that she just preferred to be alone, didn't want to be made vulnerable by intimacy, would feel invaded or violated by such intrusion, was never really cut out to be the stereotypical traditional wife and mother; but on the other hand, some of her close associates felt that perhaps she could have been happy with a partner who knew and understood her need to be alone and the fact that she would never be a housewife or conform to the traditional gender role assigned to women in Western society, and even said she sometimes voiced regret she had never married or had a family. Whatever the case, she was always very much her own person with her own identity.

However, even in a bio this meticulous and even-handed, there are bound to be some errors. The major one I noticed was Mr. Paris's statement that 'The Kiss,' Garbo's final silent, was also the last silent released in America but for Chaplin's last stands, 'City Lights' (1931) and 'Modern Times' (1936). 'The Kiss' came out in mid-November 1929, but there were still some theatres in America not wired for sound, and some artists who were still releasing silents they had made earlier that year, such as Laurel and Hardy's final silent, 'Angora Love,' which came out in December of 1929. Additionally, some of the more minor studios did release silent pictures in 1930, so to say that this was the final American silent picture is kind of dishonest. It would have been better had he said it was the last *major* American silent. Another error I noticed was when Mr. Paris referred to Natacha Rambova (whose forename he didn't even spell correctly) as a lesbian. This seems to be just one of those old unfounded rumors that just won't go away. The reader also might disagree with some of his opinions or conclusions about some of her films, or certain aspects of them, but the beauty of opinions is that we're all entitled to our own and aren't forced to agree with someone else's.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about this famous and elusive enigma and to go beyond long-time rumors and speculation to find out the facts.

This is a classic, step-by-step police procedural which holds the reader's interest throughout. Martin Beck is a well-developed character, as are the other police and the fascinating characters who flit in and out of this novel. The authors don't waste words, nor do they lead one on wild goose chases. They often paint the police as Keystone Kops and they can't resist getting their little socialist digs in wherever possible. I found this off-putting, but only mildly so. All in all, a good piece of work.

'The Locked Room' is a rather curious book which seems to be more of a statement about the human condition in Sweden during the late 1960s rather than crime story. The authors are clearly a bit left wing and *extremely* critical of their country. Strange, and all this anger about the Swedish social condition does get tiresome, but is works.

As for the story, two rather unusual crimes (a locked room murder first viewed as a suicide) and a bank robbery/murder baffle the Stockholm police force. But as the story unfolds we understand these two incidents are related. The conclusion is surprising and *very* cynical.

My only complaint with the book is that it has a dated feel to it, and the prose (or translation?) is a bit flat. For example during the bank robbery the robber says "hands up!" and the teller says "you'll never get away with it!". Not very original, eh?

Bottom line: a curious but forgotten mystery novel. Not worth seeking out but certainly an interesting diversion.

Detective Martin Beck is back at work after a near-fatal event at work. A team of colleagues is attempting to solve a series of bank robberies that they are convinced are related. Beck is in the process of solving another case. His work and conclusions are more intriguing than that of the others and finally solved but not prosecuted. All crimes eventually can be all tied together even though they are not officially solved. The crimes are set in the Stockholm of the 70ies and integrated in Sweden's social problems of that era.

While I was expecting a masterpiece along the lines of Henning Mankell's criminal investigator Wallander this book did certainly not live up to my expectations. The stories are very fragmented, the sudden shifts from one story to the other are deliberate but destructive to the reader. I did not get hooked onto the book at all - because of its fragmentation it totally lacks suspense. It is hard to relate nowadays to the social problems of the time and they seem to overshadow the story lines in many instances. I concluded for myself that I could not get interested because of too many contemporary references, which will not make this mystery a classic of its genre. While Martin Beck fills the role of an interesting inspector he is pushed to far into the background even though he is supposed to be the novel's hero.

The seventh Martin Beck novel. Recovering from his misadventures in "The Abominable Man", Beck takes up a seemingly unsolvable case: a friendless, elderly miser, shot one time in the head in a one-bedroom apartment, with locked doors and locked windows, and no gun in sight. Meanwhile, his colleagues are investigating the high-profile shooting of a security guard during a daring bank robbery conducted, apparently, by a beautiful blonde woman.

Although the authors begin to get a little too heavy-handed in their social commentary, this is still one of the better Beck novels (in fact it is regarded by many as the best, though I think its predecessor is better.) The dual plot structure and the improbable connection between the crimes make for a great thriller. The characters are engaging, and the ending is wonderful. Read it.

you can grasp hold of it and show off what you can do." Mickey Friedman


There is no mystery formula more traditional than the locked door mystery. It is almost as old as the genre itself. So, when an author(s) writes a book in which the central plot device is a murder committed in a locked room it can best be judged not for originality but for the panache (or lack thereof) with which it is carried off. Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall get high marks for performance in "The Locked Room".

"The Locked Room", published in Sweden in 1972 and in the U.S. in 1973 was the eighth in a series of ten Martin Beck mysteries written by the Swedish, husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. The plot and structure of the four Beck mysteries I've read to date do not deviate from the standard format found in any well-written police procedural. In fact, and as noted, this plot seems to pay homage to police or detective procedurals generally. What sets the Beck mysteries apart is their location and character development. Naturally enough, each book is a small window into Swedish life and culture in the 1960s and 1970s when the books were written. Further, as the series develops the character of Beck and his colleagues evolve and the reader slowly obtains a real feel for Beck and his fellow police officers. At the same time the characters, especially Beck, remain far from predictable. However, they are already fully formed in the authors' minds and for that reason I suggest reading these books in order. (Unfortunately, although Vintage Crime/Black Lizard has republished some in this series a few of the books are currently out of print.)

In "The Locked Room" Inspector Martin Beck has just returned from an extended leave while he recovered from gunshot wounds. (The shooting takes place in The Abominable Man) and is tasked with investigating the death of a man found dead in a locked room. At the same time, the rest of his squad are investigating a bank robbery in which a masked, robber has managed to shoot and kill one of the bank's customers. The investigations are, or appear to be, unrelated and the rest of the book is devoted to the parallel investigations.

One of the pleasures of reading these Martin Beck stories is the way in which the reader sees the process of the investigation. There are no Sherlock Holmes-like flashes of genius. Rather, we see how Beck and his colleagues struggle (sometimes comically, sometimes incompetently) to put together the jigsaw puzzle of a crime. At the same time we catch glimpses of Beck's personal life and the lives of his fellow detectives.

Like a good gymnast "The Locked Room" succeeds is showcasing how well Sjowall and Wahloo can work within a tried and true formula. The ending, which I found a bit surprising and thought-provoking, was more than satisfying if more than a bit ironic. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig