Martin Beck by Maj Sjowall Per Wahloo
Martin Beck is the lead character in a series of Scandinavian crime fiction novels by Swedish novelists Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Martin Beck is a Stockholm police detective. Martin is described as a tall smoker and has a weak immune system. He has two teenage sons. Al of the novels have been adapted to film and/or television in various languages, most notably by Walter Matthau in the 1973 film The Laughing Policeman. The series is also known as The Story of a Crime.

Sjowall and Wahloo started their Martin Beck series in 1965 with the novel Roseanna. The series lasted ten novels, concluding in 1976 with the novel The Terrorists. Below is a list of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo’s Martin Beck books in order of when they were originally released (which is the same as their chronological order):

Publication Order of Martin Beck Books

(By: Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö)

Roseanna (1965)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (1966)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Man on the Balcony (1967)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Laughing Policeman / Investigation of Murder (1968)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Fire Engine that Disappeared (1969)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder at the Savoy (1970)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Abominable Man (1971)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Locked Room (1972)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Cop Killer (1974)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Terrorists (1975)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price

Note: The Laughing Policeman was also published under the title of Investigation of Murder.

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Martin Beck/The Story of a Crime Synopsis: The Laughing Policeman is the fourth novel featuring Martin Beck by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. The book starts off on a cold and rainy night in Stockholm, when nine people on a bus are shot and killed. The press has a theory that it’s an attack by a lunatic, but Superintendent Beck has his own theory, citing that one of his young detectives was one of the victims. Beck doesn’t believe this to be a coincidence.

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Order of Books » Characters » Order of Martin Beck Books

One Response to “Order of Martin Beck Books”

  1. jimbobadger: 3 years ago

    Wonderful series. Set mostly in the 50’s and 60’s Stockholm. Police procedurals, but highly entertaining. The world before cell phones and
    computers.

    Reply

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