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Zusatztext “The first great series of police thrillers. . . . Truly exciting.”—Michael Ondaatje "The [Martin Beck] series has maintained such a degree of excellence that comparisons are near impossible."-- Minneapolis Tribune “It’s hard to think of any other thriller writers (apart from Simenon perhaps) who can capture so much of a society in a couple of hundred pages and yet still hold true to the thriller form.”—Sean and Nicci French “Sjöwall and Wahlöö write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none.”—Val McDermid “Sjöwall and Wahlöö continue to be tops for discriminating crime book readers.”— Denver Post “Ingenious. . . . Their mysteries don’t just read well; they reread even better. . . . The writing is lean! with mournful undertones.”— The New York Times ”Martin Beck is as always very believable: this! we feel! is what it must mean to be an honest and intelligent policeman in modern Sweden! or anywhere else.”— Times Literary Supplement “In the hands of Wahlöö and Sjöwal . . . the police story – with no loss of suspense or action – [has been] brilliantly fashioned into a sharp instrument for social commentary.”— Washington Post “Edge-of-the-seat suspense.”— San Francisco Examiner Informationen zum Autor Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö With a New Introduction by Liza Marklund Klappentext The shocking ninth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö finds Beck investigating parallel cases that have shocked a small rural community. In a country town, a woman is brutally murdered and left buried in a swamp. There are two main suspects: her closest neighbor and her ex-husband. Meanwhile, on a quiet suburban street a midnight shootout takes place between three cops and two teenage boys. Dead, one cop and one kid. Wounded, two cops. Escaped, one kid. Martin Beck and his partner Lenart Kollberg are called in to investigate. As Beck digs deeper into the murky waters of the young girl's murder, Kollberg scours the town for the teenager, and together they are forced to examine the changing face of crime. Chapter 1 She reached the bus stop well ahead of the bus, which would not be along for half an hour yet. Thirty minutes of a person's life is not an especially long time. Besides, she was used to waiting and was always early. She thought about what she would make for dinner, and a little about what she looked like—her usual idle thoughts. By the time the bus came, she would no longer have any thoughts at all. She had only twenty-seven minutes left to live. It was a pretty day, clear and gusty, with a touch of early autumn chill in the wind, but her hair was too well processed to be affected by the weather. What did she look like? Standing there by the side of the road this way, she might have been in her forties, a rather tall, sturdy woman with straight legs and broad hips and a little secret fat that she was very much afraid might show. She dressed mostly according to fashion, often at the expense of comfort, and on this blustery fall day she was wearing a bright green 1930s coat, nylon stockings, and thin brown patent leather boots with platform soles. She was carrying a small square handbag with a large brass clasp slung over her left shoulder. This too was brown, as were her suede gloves. Her blond hair had been well sprayed, and she was carefully made up. She didn't notice him until he stopped. He leaned over and threw open the passenger door. "Want a lift?" he said. "Yes," she said, a little flurried. "Sure. I didn't think . . ." "What didn't you think?" "Well, I didn't expect to get a ride. I was going to take the bus." "I knew you'd be here," he said. "And it's not out of my way, as it happens. Jump in, now, look alive."
