The Man on the Balcony

The third book in the hugely acclaimed Martin Beck series: the novels that shaped the future of Scandinavian crime fiction and influenced writers from Stieg Larrson to Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and Lars Kepplar.

Someone is assaulting and killing young girls in the once-peaceful parks of Stockholm. Detective Inspector Marin Beck has two witnesses: a cold-blooded mugger who won’t say much, and a three-year-old boy who can’t say much. The killer will strike again, and the police are getting nowhere. Can Beck crack the case before time runs out?

Reviews

‘Authentic seeming, grim, but fascinating.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A well-told, documentary-type tale of how the Stockholm police slog away…There is something of Ed McBain's “87th Precinct” novels about it, but with less of a factory finish.’ Spectator

‘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 is inspired by them in one way or another.’ Henning Mankell

‘Their mysteries don’t just read well; they reread even better…The plots hold, because they’re ingenious but never inhuman.’ New York Times

About the author

Per Wahlöö was born in Göteborg, as the son of Waldemar and Karin (Svensson) Wahlöö. After graduating from the University of Lund in 1946, he worked as a journalist, covering criminal and social issues for a number of newspapers and magazines. In the 1950s Wahlöö was engaged in radical political causes, activities that resulted in his deportation from Franco's Spain in 1957. After returning to Sweden, he wrote a number of television and radio plays, and was managing editor of several magazines, before becoming a full-time writer. Maj Sjowall is also a poet. She lives in Sweden.