A team of Swedish police detectives are trying to solve a murder. It takes months. They start with no clues. They wait for a break in the case. They stare out the window at the rain. They play endless games of chess. They walk the streets of Stockholm after dark, looking up at people in lit windows. They drink coffee.
Dull reading? Not for a second. The story moves swiftly along, especially in the many long passages of dialogue. The economy of the prose is a wonder. Instead of breakneck action, the novel offers the great pleasure of watching professionals at work, really at work, in their offices, on the phone, in the interview room.
Roseanna is the first in a series of 10 crime novels by the husband-and-wife team of Sjöwall and Wahlöö. Originally published between 1965 and 1975 (the year of Wahlöö’s death), they have now been reissued by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. The fact that they are back in print has everything to do with the current craze for Nordic crime fiction, sometimes dubbed “Scandinavian Noir.” Sjöwall and Wahlöö invented this genre, and they are its master artists. In April 2008, the Times of London ranked them 15th on their list of the top 50 crime writers (though if there were a competition for Most Umlauts in an Author’s Name, they would surely take first place).
The central character in the series is Martin Beck, First Detective Inspector with the National Police. He is an ordinary man with one exceptional quality: his skill in questioning witnesses and suspects and knowing when they are lying. But Beck is no lone sleuth. He and his colleagues form an ensemble cast whose daily routines and minor idiosyncrasies are detailed with dry humor. Here, they are searching for the killer of an unidentified woman whose body was dredged from a lake. What they gradually learn about her and how she lived her life makes them ever more determined to arrest her murderer, no matter how long it takes.
The novel is strongly grounded in its Swedish settings, so much so that I recommend using Google Earth as a companion to your reading. Follow the detectives as they stake out a house on Runeberg Street or tail a suspect down Småland Street, keeping in mind that Sweden, and the world, have changed since the book was written some 45 years ago.
Check the WRL catalog for Roseanna
[...] It is best to read the series more or less in order, so start with The Shape of Water. Here, Montalbano looks into the death of a powerful Vigata engineer. The man was found in his car in an unseemly state in a sordid location, and the authorities are anxious to put the case behind them. Something does not feel right to Montalbano though, and he persists in his investigations. Did the man die of natural causes or not? Camilleri’s stories are not always pleasant, and the language and situations can be a bit rough at times, but Inspector Montalbano will appeal to readers who have enjoyed Donna Leon’s Commissioner Brunetti mysteries or Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. [...]
Thank you so much for this suggestion! I would never have found this series without Blogging for a Good Book! I’m currently waiting for my library to get book 9 in the series. The character development and sense of place in each book is wonderful. Thanks again – I love your blog!
Thank you so much for this recommendation. My husband has been through all ten (translated) Camilleri procedurals, and I’ve been trying to find another series to please him. Donna Leon is not doing it for him.
This Swedish couple sounds perfect. (And I wonder if they are the ones implicitly recommended by Montalbano? At least twice he’s referred to having read Swedish crime novels….)
I think that these books probably are the ones hinted at by Camilleri. Your husband might also like some of the titles that are talked about here. These are all mysteries in translation that share some common elements with the Montalbano series. He might like some of these as well. Happy reading!