Roseanna
Critique • Quotes
First editionFirst publication
1965
Literary form
Novel
Genres
Crime, mystery
Writing language
Swedish
Authors' country
Sweden
Length
Approx. 74,000 words
Introducing the new kind of detective
The first in the ten-book Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Roseanna (1965) can come across as a plodding police procedural featuring unremarkable detectives and a drawn-out plot with a foregone conclusion.
But these complaints are partly why the novel is acclaimed. For Roseanna has been credited as leading toward a more realistic depiction of police work than seen in any foregoing crime fiction.
For one thing, Martin Beck, the leader of the detectives trying to solve the murder of a young woman found in a Swedish canal, is pretty ordinary. He may be a cut above the average cop—dedicated, patient, disciplined—but not exactly brilliant. He makes mistakes. Other members of his team are better at some investigative tasks but also are far from perfect.
They muddle through the investigation methodically and uninspiringly, getting nowhere for long stretches, experiencing short spurts of hopeful developments that are soon squashed. They end up making some of their biggest advances through lucky breaks (though it could be argued that luck arises only because all the boring, routine work is carried out).
The murderer, whom they've identified long before the end, almost gets away but is finally caught with the help of an ethically dubious operation that bothers Beck.
Failures of character
In personal life, Beck is also a mess. He's socially inept. He gets along with his family—wife and daughter—poorly. He's controlled almost to the point of estrangement. He's unhappy, if not depressed, with his life. He's critical of the society he supposedly serves. In later entries of the novel series he drinks too much as he becomes increasingly disillusioned.
Beck's colleagues are also depicted in all their idiosyncrasies, though their failures of character will become clearer as the series proceeds.
If this portrait of a deeply human detective and his work does not seem like such a radical departure from the character and work of other flawed cops you're read about in novels or seen in movies and on TV, it's because most of them picked it up from Roseanna and its sequels.
— Eric
Critique • Quotes
