Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

[willijt]

Hello to all,

I just this morning finished "The Laughing Policeman" by the aforementioned authors and I must say that I really enjoyed it. It was delightful. But sometimes my own taste in literature is a puzzle to me, even after all these years. When I try to isolate the attributes that caused me to enjoy it, I am not at all overwhelmed by answers. But at least it fits a pattern that is somewhat consistent for me and my tastes to date. That is, I have found enjoyment in other authors who seem to have created a similar genre of character. Namely Martin Cruz Smith with his Arkady Renko, and Stieg Larsson with his Mikael Blomkvist.

Anyway, this was my first exposure to Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Inspector Martin Beck, and it was enjoyable enough that I now plan to investigate some other titles in this series.

Perfect reading for a day when the outside temperature is -25C under sunny skies.

Jim

[elemenoP]

I have a friend who loves those books and his other favorite is the Amsterdam policemen series by Van De Wetering, the first one is Outsider in Amsterdam. I see they are available for Kindle, at least. Also Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series, the first one is Faceless Killers. Mankell is Swedish. I don't see that one for Kindle, which is surprising since I thought everyone wanted to jump on the "Swedish crime fiction" bandwagon right now!

eP

[willijt]

Thanks for the pointer. I'll definitely look into Van De Wetering. And yes, I've already got my eye on Henning Mankell's Wallander series. Right now though, there aren't enough hours in the day to get to all the books that I have queued up on my reader. I also like Sci-Fi (Heinlein, Niven, Reynolds etc.) but after a long bout with one genre I need a change-up, and so I'll probably be reading mysteries for a wee bit yet.

[willijt]

Found another author that I have added to my "to read" list:

Jo Nesbo was born in 1960 in Oslo, Norway. After graduating from the Norwegian School of Economics, he worked as a freelance journalist and as a stockbroker. His first crime novel featuring Harry Hole was published in Norway in 1997 and was an instant hit, winning the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel (an accolade shared with Peter Høeg, Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson). After the success of his first novel, Nesbo devoted his time to writing and to his other passion: music. He also is the lead singer and songwriter for the popular Norwegian rock band 'di Derre'.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by willijt

...His first crime novel featuring Harry Hole...

Are you sure it was a crime novel?

[NightBird]

I've read the first four books by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, including The Laughing Policeman, but I frankly wasn't that impressed because there really wasn't much to the "mystery" part of it. I did enjoy the humor - particularly in the quips exchanged among the policemen - but not enough to make me keep reading the series. I enjoyed the Stieg Larrson very much - I think because they were quite complex stories with a lot of different elements to them and interesting characters in addition to a good mystery. A lot of these so-called mysteries seem to be more of mainstream books with a little, weak mystery thrown in on top as an afterthought. I didn't care for the couple of books I've read by Henning Mankell, either, mainly due to his rather odd writing style, although of course it could be the translation.

I just learned about the "Amsterdam policemen series by Van De Wetering" also and just started the first one in the series. The combination of Amsterdam setting, Japan and Buddhism sounds intriguing.

I have Jo Nesbo on my list, too.

If you haven't seen it, here is a good website for finding out about Scandinavian authors. Of course, unfortunately, a lot of them are not in ebooks yet.

http://www.scandinavianbooks.com/index.html

[willijt]

Just finished "The Laughing Policeman" and although I enjoyed it, I found it mildly oppressive. I will now try "Outsider in Amsterdam" by Janwillem van de Wetering in accordance with your recommend. Just bought it for my Nook. I like the Dutch and their sense of things. During my career with the military I spent a few years training the student pilots of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. They were delightful. And oh how many times at their graduation ceremonies did I toast Queen Juliana of The Netherlands - "...to The Queen, God Bless Her". Oh how time flies by.

[willijt]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Are you sure it was a crime novel?

...not sure of anything. But I cannot deny that the eBook captivated me for the time that I was reading it. I miss your point. Tell me what you are trying to say in your note. AM I correct that you have your tongue-in-cheek?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by willijt

...not sure of anything. But I cannot deny that the eBook captivated me for the time that I was reading it. I miss your point. Tell me what you are trying to say in your note. AM I correct that you have your tongue-in-cheek?

Yes. The detective's name sounds like "hairy hole" in English, so I was joking that it sounded like it was some kind of pornography.

I just did some googling, and found this interesting link where the name is discussed: http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogs...w-with-jo.html. It seems that in Norwegian it is a joke of a different kind.

[willijt]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Yes. The detective's name sounds like "hairy hole" in English, so I was joking that it sounded like it was some kind of pornography.

I just did some googling, and found this interesting link where the name is discussed: http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogs...w-with-jo.html. It seems that in Norwegian it is a joke of a different kind.

Mea culpa. I missed that one - it bounced off my forehead. Thanks for the explanation, and the link. I enjoyed it.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by willijt

Thanks for the explanation, and the link. I enjoyed it.

And thanks for the recommendation. I bought the first of the Martin Beck mysteries last night, and am well and truly hooked already. I'm glad there are another nine after this one.

[willijt]

Originally Posted by NightBird

I've read the first four books by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, including The Laughing Policeman, but I frankly wasn't that impressed because there really wasn't much to the "mystery" part of it. I did enjoy the humor - particularly in the quips exchanged among the policemen - but not enough to make me keep reading the series. I enjoyed the Stieg Larrson very much - I think because they were quite complex stories with a lot of different elements to them and interesting characters in addition to a good mystery. A lot of these so-called mysteries seem to be more of mainstream books with a little, weak mystery thrown in on top as an afterthought. I didn't care for the couple of books I've read by Henning Mankell, either, mainly due to his rather odd writing style, although of course it could be the translation.

I just learned about the "Amsterdam policemen series by Van De Wetering" also and just started the first one in the series. The combination of Amsterdam setting, Japan and Buddhism sounds intriguing.

I have Jo Nesbo on my list, too.

If you haven't seen it, here is a good website for finding out about Scandinavian authors. Of course, unfortunately, a lot of them are not in ebooks yet.

http://www.scandinavianbooks.com/index.html

Thank you for the link to the index of Scandinavian books. A few days ago I began reading Janwillem Van Der Wetering's "Outsider in Amsterdam". I am delighting in it. I think you're right about the Amsterdam setting mixing well with elements of Asian culture and religion. The books contain some very fetching social statements as well as some very downplayed humor, that almost at times seems to be ingenious - and oh so enjoyable.

[NightBird]

YW! I learned about a lot of different Scandinavian authors from that link.

I'm about halfway through the Amsterdam book, too. It is really different from anything else I have read. Curious to see how it will pan out.

Not Scandinavian but I also started reading Peter Lovesey's Peter Diamond series and I'm really enjoying that. The first book in the series is The Last Detective. Each section is told in the first person by a different character, so it's one of those types of things where you're not sure what is really going on. Very interesting and different characters.

Product Description
In the process of charging the husband of soap opera star Gerry Snoo with Gerry's murder, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond runs across an annoyingly huge number of clues, suspects, and motives.

More info here if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Detec...s=digital-text

He also has 2 other series, one a Victorian era police procedural which I haven't started yet, and a few standalones.