Cops
I’ve been a fan of the police procedural mystery novel over the hard-boiled detective ever since I first read one of the Martin Beck stories, The Laughing Policeman, perhaps the most famous of their 10-book series, having been made into a movie with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern (hey, and Louis Gossett Jr, too; amazing the things you find out). Years later, after the Counsellor travelled to Sweden or anyway became friends with some Swedes, I found that locally Martin Beck’s pretty passé. Yes, the books are dated, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good. Just as mysteries they’re excellent, and the characters are marvellously drawn. Turns out, however, there’s another Swedish series, written by Henning Mankell, following police detective Kurt Wallender. A review of his latest, The Man Who Smiled (not yet published in the States or UK), has piqued my interest. The latest back home is Firewall, which I’ll be on the lookout for in the library.