The Man on the Balcony
A Martin Beck Police Mystery

The Man on the Balcony is the third novel in the Martin Beck detective series set in Sweden, written by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo. I just finished the fourth in the series by Raymond Chandler and I can only begin to tell you how different they are. The latter has actual crime, but it has lots of lau......more

I am a big fan of multi-multi-part series. Series that follow the same character(s) for eight, nine, ten or even dozens of books have an ability to play with characters and let them grow and breathe that one shots or even trilogies don't. The best, like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin Series, do suc......more

catching up on unreviewed books (from 2011) According to author Jo Nesbø, who wrote the introduction to this edition of the novel (third in the Martin Beck series), Man on the Balcony found its inspiration in an actual case that occurred in Stockholm in 1963. At that time, two little girls were sexua......more

The third book in the 10-book series has Beck and his colleagues chasing a horrible sexual predator. The characters, which were fully formed to begin with, undergo further development in each book and that's just one on the things that makes this series such good reading. I would not put this in the......more

May be three and half stars. The other day I had to undertake a three hour train journey and after a day I had to return back taking the same train. So I had six hours of train journey. To accompany me in my train journey, and as I did not want to exert much concentration, I chose a crime fiction. Mo......more