The Terrorists: Book 10 (The Martin Beck series) - Softcover

Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007243006 ISBN 13: 9780007243006

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2007

Synopsis

The final classic installment in the excellent Martin Beck detective series from the 1960s and 70s – the novels that have inspired all crime fiction written ever since.

Widely recognised as the greatest masterpieces of crime fiction ever written, these are the original detective stories that pioneered the detective genre.

Written in the 1960s, they are the work of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo – a husband and wife team from Sweden. The ten novels follow the fortunes of the detective Martin Beck, whose enigmatic, taciturn character has inspired countless other policemen in crime fiction. The novels can be read separately, but do follow a chronological order, so the reader can become familiar with the characters and develop a loyalty to the series. Each book will have a new introduction in order to help bring these books to a new audience.

About this title

Review

Praise for ‘Roseanna’:

‘The writing is elegant and surprisingly humorous – if you haven’t come across Beck before, you’re in for a treat.’ Guardian

‘I have never read a finer police story.’ Los Angeles Times

‘The decalogue about the Swedish Chief Inspector Martin Beck created by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo during the 1960s and 1970s are indeed classic police fiction. They changed the genre. Whoever is writing crime fiction after these novels inspired by them in one way or another.’ Henning Mankell

‘If you haven’t read Sjowall/Wahloo, start now.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Their mysteries don’t just read well; they reread even better. Witness, wife, petty cop or crook – they’re all real characters even if they get just a few sentences. The plots hold, because they’re ingenious but never inhuman.’ New York Times

From the Back Cover

The Terrorists is the last Martin Beck mystery, tragically finished just a few weeks before Per Wahloo's death. The book is, in effect, a marvelous summing up of the series. The story centers on the visit of an American senator to Stockholm. Martin Beck tries to protect him from an international gang of terrorists, while they decide that Beck too should be removed from the scene. Interwoven with this basic story are two fascinating subplots. One, a classic mini-mystery, is the story of a millionaire pornographer bludgeoned to death in his own bathtub. The other is the story of a young girl, a Swedish hippie caught up unexpectedly in the maze of police bureaucracy. As in other Martin Beck books, the plot comes together in a totally unexpected climax.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0007243006
• ISBN 13: 9780007243006
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288