The Book Depository The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjoewall

Author: Victor

Rating: 5

Review: This is the second of the BBC adaptations of Sjowall and Wahloo's Martin Beck series of books, starring Steven Mackintosh as Beck and Neil Pearson as Kolberg. The book was originally written in 1966, and the production is set in that time. Martin Beck is just about to go on holiday when he is called in to investigate the disappearance of a journalist in Hungary. He travels to Budapest where things seem to get out of control and he suspects he is being tailed by the secret police. With the help of a friendly local policeman he starts to uncover a complicated story, while Kolberg back in Sweden starts to track down some interesting leads. Beck slowly works his way through the layers of obfuscation and red herrings to finally arrive at what is really a simple truth. It's a nicely constructed adventure that intriguingly knocks down a few of the misconceptions of the time surrounding Hungary and provides an interesting puzzle for Beck to solve. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not as dark as the Wallander books (didn't Wallander also go behind the iron curtain in his second book? I wonder just how influenced Mankell was by the Beck stories?) and Beck is less of a flawed human being than most modern noir detectives, making him a more sympathetic character and the story easier to get into. The BBC production is, as usual, excellent. Mackintosh provides a considered performance, making the character thoughtful. We get to hear a lot more of the excellent Neil Pearson as Kolberg in this release, which is very welcome. The acting is generally pretty good, and the two narrative voices provide just the right tone with their dry, matter of fact statements. It's about an hour long, one episode on one disc. There are limited liner notes. In all an excellent production. 5 stars for this interesting and well produced mystery.

Author: Ragnar

Rating: 3

Review: This is the second book in the Martin beck series and, unlike the later novels, the emphasis is very much on Beck himself. The reason for this is that he is sent to Hungary to investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist. Over half of the book recounts Beck's failed attempts to track down this man, with the result that the book is unusually heavy on descriptive passages - for example, of boats plying the Danube. Though the descriptions are generally excellent, the avid crime reader may feel this part of book is too static. At the time of writing, Hungary was part of the Soviet empire, whether it liked it or not, and we all remember, or know about the brutal suppression of the Hungarian rising in 1956. These unpleasant facts do not disturb the writers, who were both Marxists. And while they do not openly produce propaganda here, there is a whiff of it nonetheless. To take one example, Beck notices that he is being followed and the obvious assumption is that the local secret police are keeping an eye on him. In fact, one policeman, Vilmos Szluka, is taking an interest in him but, as it turns out, in a benign way. He helps Beck as much as he can, and is unfailingly courteous to him. Not only that, he is also efficient. In fact, Beck is correct, he is being shadowed, but by two people involved in drug smuggling, neither of whom is Hungarian or communist. More generally, if we compare the authors' comments on Sweden with their description of Hungary, we might be forgiven for thinking that free, democratic Sweden was the more problematic. The disappearance of the journalist (a singularly unpleasant man whom no one would be likely to miss), is well explained towards the end of the book, by which time Beck is back in Sweden. But readers of the series as a whole may think that this title is the weakest of the ten. They are likely to miss the more collegiate feel of the police work from the third title on. Kollberg appears, but not a lot, and the others barely rate a mention. And I remain perplexed by the attempt to murder Beck, which is not well motivated. For me, the series hits its first really high note with the fourth novel, The Laughing Policeman, which is a miracle of narrative construction both on a large and a small scale.