The Abominable Man

The Abominable Man

First US edition
Author	Sjöwall and Wahlöö
Original title	Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle
Country	Sweden
Language	Swedish
Series	Martin Beck series
Publisher	Norstedts Förlag (Sweden) Pantheon Books (US)
Publication date	1971
Published in English	1972
Pages	194 pp
ISBN	91-1-715611-4
OCLC	13383505
LC Class	PT9876.29.J63 V4
Preceded by	Murder at the Savoy
Followed by	The Locked Room

The Abominable Man (Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle) is a Swedish crime novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö from 1971 in the series revolving around police detective Martin Beck. One of Donald Knuth's favourite novels, he described it as "one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's brilliantly Swedish detective novels".^[1]

Plot

A senior policeman known for brutality is violently knifed while in his hospital bed. Within a 24-hour period, Martin Beck investigates the policeman's many enemies in an attempt to identify the killer, for whom the murder was only a precursor to a Charles Whitman-style attack on Stockholm.

Since they cannot find a starting clue, the police go in the archives of the police ombudsman where they find many old complaints about Nyman. They encounter the entry of their former colleague Åke Eriksson; Eriksson's wife was in diabetic coma but she was considered drunk by Nyman and locked in the drunk cell, where she died. Finally, on the roof of a skyscraper in downtown Stockholm, it comes to a showdown with Eriksson, who has lost everything, at which point the novel ends with Martin Beck seriously injured by a gunshot.

Characters and their development

Martin Beck and his now grown-up daughter Ingrid develop their friendship; they eat out together. Police officer Kurt Kvant is killed in this book by the crazed killer on the roof.

Film adaptation

The book was adapted to film in 1976 and directed by Bo Widerberg. It was renamed The Man on the Roof (Mannen på taket) and Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt played the lead role as Martin Beck.

References

1. Knuth: Retirement