The Locked Room
A Martin Beck Police Mystery

I could plot out the book and discuss all that action rot, but what really matters in this eighth book in Sjowall and Wahloo’s masterwork can be boiled down to two points: 1. Martin Beck; and 2. the illusions of justice. 1. Martin Beck is in less than half of this eighth book. While his friends and c......more

The Locked Room, Martin Beck #8 in the Majo Sjowall and Per Wahloo mystery series, reveals a bit of sense of humor in its self conscious focus on a sub-genre, a “locked room” mystery, associated originally with Agatha Christie. Beck himself does not read detective stories, but several people around......more

Of the two Martin Beck novels I’ve now read, I far preferred ‘The Laughing Policeman’. This volume, despite the classic but still intriguing premise, is just too slight a tale with far too much inconsequential padding. The title of course says it all. This is the traditional story of a man found murd......more

Update, September 2024, to my review below from March 2018: I’ve just re-read this, starting this afternoon after going on our local vigil, and having a quick lunch, and once again, I’ve read the whole book before bedtime! Only Beck novels do this to me! 🤪🤣 I literally could not put this book down, e......more