Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective who is the main character in a series of ten novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime. The stories are often seen largely from his perspective, and hence are frequently referred to as the Martin Beck stories.

Character

Throughout the novels, he goes from being an unhappily married man and father to two young teenagers, to a divorced man in an unmarried relationship. Beck also gets several promotions, seemingly much to the chagrin of everyone involved, including himself.

In the novels he is a tall man who smokes. In The Abominable Man he gets shot and heavily wounded.

All of the novels have been produced as movies, although some appeared with different titles and three have been filmed outside Sweden. In the movies the first actor to play Martin Beck was Keve Hjelm in 1967 and Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt also portraited Beck in 1976. In 1993 and 1994 Gösta Ekman played the character in six movies based on the novels, as of 1997^[update] Martin Beck is played by Peter Haber. The most notable actor to play Martin Beck abroad was Walter Matthau, who 1973 played him in the movie called The Laughing Policeman, though his character was called "Jake Martin". Martin Beck has also been played by Jan Decleir and Derek Jacobi. Roseanna is the only novel that has been filmed twice.

Novels

Title - Year - English title

1. Roseanna (1965) (Roseanna)
2. Mannen som gick upp i rök (1966) (The Man who Went Up in Smoke)
3. Mannen på balkongen (1967) (The Man on the Balcony)
4. Den skrattande polisen (1968) (The Laughing Policeman)
5. Brandbilen som försvann (1969) (The Fire Engine That Disappeared)
6. Polis, polis, potatismos! (1970) (Murder at the Savoy)
7. Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle (1971) (The Abominable Man)
8. Det slutna rummet (1972) (The Locked Room)
9. Polismördaren (1974) (Cop Killer)
10. Terroristerna (1975) (The Terrorists)

Movies

Movies based on the novels

• Roseanna (1967) (starring Keve Hjelm)
• The Laughing Policeman (1973) (starring Walter Matthau, this movie had the setting changed to San Francisco and changed the names of the characters)
• Mannen på taket (1976) (The Man on the Roof, starring Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt)
• Der Mann, der sich in Luft auflöste (1980) (starring Derek Jacobi)
• Beck - De gesloten kamer (1993) (starring Jan Decleir)
• Roseanna (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Brandbilen som försvann (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Polis polis potatismos! (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Mannen på balkongen (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Polismördaren (1994) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Stockholm Marathon (1994) (starring Gösta Ekman)

Movies only based on the characters

Season 1

Most of these were written by Rölf Börjlind, all starring Peter Haber. Some of them were released theatrically, but most went direct-to-video

• Lockpojken (June 27, 1997)
• Mannen med ikonerna (December 17, 1997)
• Vita nätter (February 27, 1998)
• Öga för öga (March 27, 1998)
• Pensionat Pärlan (April 8, 1998)
• Monstret (May 20, 1998)
• Moneyman (June 3, 1998)
• Spår i mörkret (October 31, 1997)

Season 2

• Hämndens pris (June 27, 2001)
• Mannen utan ansikte (November 7, 2001)
• Kartellen (December 12, 2001)
• Enslingen (January 16, 2002)
• Okänd avsändare (February 13, 2002)
• Annonsmannen (March 20, 2002)
• Pojken i glaskulan (April 10, 2002)
• Sista vittnet (January 4, 2002)

Season 3

• Skarpt läge (June 28, 2006)
• Flickan i jordkällaren (December 6, 2006)
• Gamen (January 17, 2007)
• Advokaten (February 21, 200)
• Den japanska Shungamålningen (June 5, 2007)
• Den svaga länken (March 23, 2007)
• Det tysta skriket
• I guds namn

See also

• Maj Sjöwall
• Per Wahlöö

External links

• Martin Beck series on Internet Book List