FRIDAYS: Forgotten Books

FRIDAYS: Forgotten books:

Roseanna by Maj Sjowal and Per Wahloo

I picked this novel because it was the first in the Martin Beck series and the first of their books I read. But most of their novels would do equally well. The novels were intended to portray the decay of modern Scandinavian society from a left-wing vantage point and through the lens of the police procedural. Sjowall and Wahloo were husband and wife and the books step inside both Swedish society and the mind of police inspector, Martin Beck. As a twenty-something reader at the time, I had little knowledge of Sweden outside of Bergman movies—and this was something quite different.

In Roseanna, Martin Beck, a homicide detective with the Stockholm police force is stuck in a loveless marriage. Stockholm bureaucracy is similarly disappointing. This book introduces us to Beck, and follows his painstaking investigation into the rape, beating, and the subsequent drowning of an American tourist named Roseanna. Some critics think the team’s writing got better over time, but I think this is a damned fine first novel. The other nine will not disappoint either. Maybe not forgotten but…

Or try these some of these:

http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2008/05/forgotten-books-passing-strange-by.html

http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-you-have-to-read-assistant-bernard.html

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/

http://deadman-r2.blogspot.com/

http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

http://danielhatadi.blogspot.com/

http://eviljwinter.wordpress.com/

http://crimetimecafe.blogspot.com/

http://humanunderconstruction.blogspot.com/

http://keithraffel.typepad.com/dot_dead_diary/

http://www.womenofmystery.net/

http://asalted.blogspot.com/2008/05/dont-forget.html

http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/

http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2008/05/friday-forgotten-book-gary-jenningss.html

http://www.mysterybookspot.com/brianlindenmuth/fridays-forgotten-books-pt-3/

http://la-noir.blogspot.com/

http://noirwriter.blogspot.com/

http://eudaemoniaforall.blogspot.com/2008/05/forgotten-book-friday-fine-and-private.html

Please let me know if you’d like to recommend a book next Friday. I have only so many veins to tap. Most of these links won't be up until tomorrow and one or two might not turn up at all. Thanks and Happy Mother's Day.