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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Martin Beck is reluctantly on the case, showing little initiative or action. The writing is straightforward to a degree of somnolence (I never read more than a few pages without falling asleep). But the mystery is clever enough.
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I like this better than the first book
My only complaint is that there are a lot of characters who come into play at the end and it was difficult to follow.
My only complaint is that there are a lot of characters who come into play at the end and it was difficult to follow.
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
I didn't find this as engaging as Roseanna perhaps because the body doesn't show up until the end. Also the differences between the two writers began to show and I developed a preference. Will persevere with the series.
Police Inspector Martin Beck gets sent to Budapest to find out what happened to a fellow Swede, a tabloid journalist, who disappeared there. This is a good whodunnit in that I was racking my brain trying to figure out a plausible reason for the guy's vanishing act, but about two-thirds of the book is Beck wandering around Budapest without a clue. He's trying his best — all Beck does is work, after all — but there's just nothing to work with. The beauty of these books is in the day-to-day patience of the job. In the end, of course, it pays off — this time with bit of surprise action and then a satisfying solution.
Here we learn that Beck really loves boats. He was building a model ship in an earlier book. This time he's got so little to do, he spends a lot of time watching ships and boats on the Danube River.
We also see a really unflattering portrayal of journalists (the missing man's friends, who spend most of their time drinking in bars), which I have to think came from Per Wahlöö's personal experience (he worked as a journalist in Sweden for many years).
There's also an intriguing vagueness around the legacy of World War II, the Cold War (in full swing at the time of this story, the late 1960s), and communism. These things are part of the atmosphere in which Beck finds himself, but he doesn't ruminate on it.
Here we learn that Beck really loves boats. He was building a model ship in an earlier book. This time he's got so little to do, he spends a lot of time watching ships and boats on the Danube River.
We also see a really unflattering portrayal of journalists (the missing man's friends, who spend most of their time drinking in bars), which I have to think came from Per Wahlöö's personal experience (he worked as a journalist in Sweden for many years).
There's also an intriguing vagueness around the legacy of World War II, the Cold War (in full swing at the time of this story, the late 1960s), and communism. These things are part of the atmosphere in which Beck finds himself, but he doesn't ruminate on it.
I'm still dipping into this reprint series from Harper Perennial with a profound sense of gratitude for the fact that they are bringing these fabulous books back to our attention. Originally copyrighted in 1966 THE MAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE sees the only time Wahloo and Sjowall take Martin way outside his comfort zone - to Budapest to investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist - he seems to have literally gone up in smoke!
Martin is called back from a family holiday - sort of - well not quite - grudgingly to work on this task in the heights of the European summer - in a country he's never been to before; with a local police force that doesn't really know why he's there; in the height and strangeness of another culture; in an Eastern European underworld that doesn't make sense. And he has to do this in an era before fax machines, before mobile telephones, before email - just an infrequent scratchy telephone call back home to try to find some details about who the missing man is in the first place.
In classic Sjowall/ Wahloo style Martin wanders his way around the problem, doing a little, thinking a lot and seeing more than anybody realises to find, firstly what on earth this journalist was up to and finally where he ended up.
In this edition, Val McDermid wrote the forward and, as is the way with this series, these forwards provide a valuable insight into just how wide the influence of this Swedish pair of writers has been - just to quote one small part of the excellent introduction:
"Discovering dedicated mystery booksellers was a bit like going to heaven without having to die first. There were so many crime writers whose books were available in the US only - ironically, some of them British - and in those pre-Internet days, the only apparent way to acquire them was physically to go there and buy them. Which I did. In industrial quantities. Among the books in the holdall were ten paperbacks in the black livery of Vintage Press. They comrpised a decalogue of crime novels written by the Swedish husband-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. They'd been on my must-read list since I'd read about them in Julian Symonds' definitive overview of the genre, Bloody Murder. "
Val's introduction is as worth reading as the book itself.
Martin is called back from a family holiday - sort of - well not quite - grudgingly to work on this task in the heights of the European summer - in a country he's never been to before; with a local police force that doesn't really know why he's there; in the height and strangeness of another culture; in an Eastern European underworld that doesn't make sense. And he has to do this in an era before fax machines, before mobile telephones, before email - just an infrequent scratchy telephone call back home to try to find some details about who the missing man is in the first place.
In classic Sjowall/ Wahloo style Martin wanders his way around the problem, doing a little, thinking a lot and seeing more than anybody realises to find, firstly what on earth this journalist was up to and finally where he ended up.
In this edition, Val McDermid wrote the forward and, as is the way with this series, these forwards provide a valuable insight into just how wide the influence of this Swedish pair of writers has been - just to quote one small part of the excellent introduction:
"Discovering dedicated mystery booksellers was a bit like going to heaven without having to die first. There were so many crime writers whose books were available in the US only - ironically, some of them British - and in those pre-Internet days, the only apparent way to acquire them was physically to go there and buy them. Which I did. In industrial quantities. Among the books in the holdall were ten paperbacks in the black livery of Vintage Press. They comrpised a decalogue of crime novels written by the Swedish husband-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. They'd been on my must-read list since I'd read about them in Julian Symonds' definitive overview of the genre, Bloody Murder. "
Val's introduction is as worth reading as the book itself.
“Martin Beck, the born detective and famous observer, constantly occupied making useless observations and storing them away for future use. Doesn’t even have bats in his belfry—they wouldn’t get in for all the crap in the way”
What is it that I love about Martin Beck? There’s something about him that I cannot get enough of. I think it’s actually his ordinariness to be honest that makes him quite extraordinary. His attention to detail, be it the meticulous details of the crime he is investigating or the mundane details of everyday life is so explicitly portrayed. The activities of daily life that intersperse with the investigative genius that he really is, come together to make him a totally believable and very likeable character albeit a somewhat aloof character.
“He got up, went out into the bathroom and coughed for a while, as he usually did in the mornings. After drinking a gulp of mineral water, he pulled on his dressing gown and opened the shutters and the window. The contrast between the dusky light of the room and the clear, sharp sunlight outside was almost overwhelming. So was the view”. What is it that I love about just knowing that Martin Beck goes to the bathroom and coughs for a while first thing in the morning? It’s his totally human and totally relatable portrayal.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is the second in the Martin Beck series written by the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the duo who virtually created Scandi Noir. The story sees Martin Beck investigating the disappearance of a Swedish man in communist Hungary. The climax of the investigation occurs back on Swedish soil, however, Martin Beck’s experiences in Hungary are what I enjoyed the most.. the descriptions of Budapest, what he could see from his hotel window and the interchanges with the Hungarian police.
I love too how Sjöwall and Wahlöö always and without fail refer to Martin Beck by both his names. Never just Martin or Beck but always Martin Beck. Not sure why I love that but somehow it adds to the whole style of their writing. Really looking forward to more of this series that set the scene for Scandinavian crime fiction.
What is it that I love about Martin Beck? There’s something about him that I cannot get enough of. I think it’s actually his ordinariness to be honest that makes him quite extraordinary. His attention to detail, be it the meticulous details of the crime he is investigating or the mundane details of everyday life is so explicitly portrayed. The activities of daily life that intersperse with the investigative genius that he really is, come together to make him a totally believable and very likeable character albeit a somewhat aloof character.
“He got up, went out into the bathroom and coughed for a while, as he usually did in the mornings. After drinking a gulp of mineral water, he pulled on his dressing gown and opened the shutters and the window. The contrast between the dusky light of the room and the clear, sharp sunlight outside was almost overwhelming. So was the view”. What is it that I love about just knowing that Martin Beck goes to the bathroom and coughs for a while first thing in the morning? It’s his totally human and totally relatable portrayal.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke is the second in the Martin Beck series written by the Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, the duo who virtually created Scandi Noir. The story sees Martin Beck investigating the disappearance of a Swedish man in communist Hungary. The climax of the investigation occurs back on Swedish soil, however, Martin Beck’s experiences in Hungary are what I enjoyed the most.. the descriptions of Budapest, what he could see from his hotel window and the interchanges with the Hungarian police.
I love too how Sjöwall and Wahlöö always and without fail refer to Martin Beck by both his names. Never just Martin or Beck but always Martin Beck. Not sure why I love that but somehow it adds to the whole style of their writing. Really looking forward to more of this series that set the scene for Scandinavian crime fiction.