A review by michael5000
The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall

4.0

The Beck novels are realistic in a way no other detective novels are. Or maybe I don't mean "realistic" so much as "true to life." I mean, I have no idea how well the world of Swedish law enforcement is depicted here. But I have an increasingly veteran experience of the way that life works, which is to say not according to plan. Martin Beck starts investigating crimes in a perfectly rational fashion, but he never follows a procedure or a chain of deduction through to their logical end. He's always interrupted by too much random shit that happens while the police and the criminals and everybody else bumble around trying to get their acts together. Just like you and me!