"Maybe is the word.""The Abominable Man" é o sétimo livro da série do Inspector Martin Beck e mantém o tom sombrio tão característico destes policiais soberbos.É com a visão do assassino que somos introduzidos no enredo. Este, armado com uma baioneta, sai de casa em direcção Hospital Mount Sabbath, que numa questão de minutos se tornará no local do crime. O seu alvo é um homem gravemente doente, que por acaso é policia. Incompetente e detestado pelos colegas de profissão é assassinado a sangue frio durante a noite. O seu nome é Stig Nyman e é por todos conhecido como "O Homem Abominável".Martin Beck, o chefe da Esquadra Nacional de Homicídios, prepara-se para dormir às 02:35 da madrugada de Sábado do dia 3 de Abril, quando o telefone toca. O interlocutor é Einar Rönn, um colega que Martin Beck considera muito estranho e que o faz sentir frustrado por ter quase de pedir por favor para partilhar as suas observações e opiniões pessoais. Rönn foi o primeiro inspector dos homicídios a chegar ao local do crime e a sua primeira acção foi acordar o chefe. Apesar da relutância em trabalhar com este subordinado, em vez do melhor amigo Kollberg, Martin Beck começa mais uma investigação.Ao contrário das investigações anteriores, esta revela-se de resolução simples e rápida. Em menos de 24 horas, Kollberg, Larsson e Rönn, liderados por Martin Beck, vêem-se envolvidos num caso inédito, em que as suas vidas são ameaçadas. O ténue tom de optimismo presente nos livros anteriores é aqui inexistente e a vida destes quatro homens do esquadrão de homicídios de Estocolmo resume-me quase exclusivamente ao seu trabalho. E esta sua infelicidade e descontentamento condiz com a atmosfera terrivelemente miserável que inunda a sociedade sueca.Maj Söjwall e Per Wahlöö focam, mais uma vez, as revelações sobre a sociedade inerentes ao crime em questão. "Quem?" não é a pergunta principal, longe disso. "Como?" e "Porquê?" são as questões que nos levam a compreender como um homem, perfeitamente normal, é levado à loucura pelas injustiças e brutalidade da sociedade em que está inserido.O tema principal é, sem dúvida alguma, a brutalidade e abuso de poder por parte da policia, que se revela corrupta e criminosa. Estará este assassino de policias errado ou serão as suas acções justificadas?À medida que a série avança, os livros vão-se tornando cada vez mais claustrofóbicos, não só no que diz respeito às personagens, como à sociedade em si. Perante uma sociedade cada vez mais violenta, os policias da velha guarda, como Beck e Kollberg, sentem-se impotentes e desesperados. Dedicando-se totalmente ao seu trabalho e colocando as suas famílias de parte, ainda que contra as suas vontades, vêem os seus esforços de fazer prevalecer a justiça irem por água abaixo.Mesmo Karl Kristiansson e Kurt Kvant, que até ao momento sempre proporcionaram momentos de descontracção no contexto sério das investigações, seguem um caminho obscuro em direcção à tragédia. Os dois gigantes loiros com quase doze anos de experiência a trabalhar juntos como agentes de patrulha, têm no seu histórico profissional alguns sucessos e vários insucessos. Mas desta vez, são os problemas que vão de encontro à dupla outrora divertida. O que começa como uma situação de humor, com a entrada voluntária no seu carro por um muito conhecido vagabundo pedinte que os provocou, para sua humilhação, na via pública, acaba com um tiro baixo do joelho de um dos policias.Seguem-se 2 minutos e 27 segundos de puro terror que envolvem os agentes Larsson e Kollberg. A quem acabam por se juntar Beck e Rönn.Pela primeira vez desde o inicio da série do Inspector Martin Beck senti medo pela vida dele. Sojwäll e Wahlöö descrevem de uma forma vivida e palpável o horror e o pânico inerentes a um ataque profissionalmente concebido com o objectivo de matar. Tudo se desenrola demasiado rápido e ao mesmo tempo extremamente devagar, como se para cada segundo pudesse ser interiorizado e absorvido pelo leitor. Mais do que uma simples expectadora vi-me no centro da acção, rodeada pelos outros cidadãos de Estocolmo, que não fazem a menor ideia do que está acontecer. Mas eu sim, sei e nada posso fazer senão assistir impotente e desejar que o desfecho não seja trágico.Para mim a experiência da leitura atinge o auge quando o mundo da ficção e o mundo real se juntam e se tornam num só. Maj Söjwall, Per Wahlöö, Henning Mankell e Håkan Nesser dominam esta arte e cada vez que os leio sinto-me privilegiada por ter tido a oportunidade."All very worthy, all very noble and interesting, and like most things worthy and noble and interesting probably destined for the footnotes of history." Lee Child
I've come to the conclusion that this series should not be read so much as police procedural mysteries as social studies of Sweden at a particular point in time - the 1960s. So much of the narrative is taken up with the authors' observations about and critiques of the social welfare society that was that country at that time.The central point and organizational theory of this particular entry in the series is the consequence of police excesses. It presents a police department that has lost the respect of the populace because of the rampant corruption and brutality that has become so much a part of that essential organization.We are introduced briefly to a police inspector who is known to be exceptionally cruel in his treatment of the policemen under his command and particularly the prisoners who are unfortunate enough to find themselves under his control. Beatings are routine. Ignoring medical needs is a common occurrence. The result of this indifference to the condition of those locked in cells has its entirely predictable end. People suffer and die. Needlessly.The brutal police inspector is in the hospital when we meet him. He is seriously ill, but would have recovered his doctor says. He doesn't get the chance. Someone breaks into his room and dispatches him with a bayonet, essentially disemboweling him in the process.There is no lack of potential suspects, people who would have wished this man dead with good cause. There are citizens who were beaten by the man and his minions. There are those who were merely ill but were arrested because they were suspected of being drunk - epileptics and diabetics, for example, some of whom died in custody. Was it one of their survivors who decided to even the score? But the dead man was hardly the only one responsible for such brutality. Are other policemen on the kill list of the murderer? Does that list include policemen who knew that the brutality was taking place but did nothing to stop it? Is Martin Beck's name on the list?Martin Beck and his colleagues comb police records looking for potential suspects. They are overwhelmed by the volume and exhausted by the search. It is true that when a policeman is killed - even a bad policeman like this one - his colleagues spare no effort in finding the perpetrator. The authors note that there are many murders that go unsolved but none of them are murders of policemen. All such crimes end in the perpetrator being brought to justice. Or killed.Martin Beck's famous instinct tells him that he and other policemen are in danger and, as usual, his instinct is correct. The murderer holes up on the roof of a building from which he can pick off his targets - all of them policemen - one by one, which is just what he proceeds to do. And so we have what has become an iconic event of the 21st century in America - except this is the decade after the middle of the 20th century in Sweden: A mass murderer wielding a rifle. In the end, it didn't take any great amount of police work to unmask the killer this time. More important in this case was the explanation of the killer's motive and what sent him over the edge and into insanity. One feels nothing but sympathy for the man.Shocking as the ending is, it is utterly predictable and the authors lead us to that conclusion step-by-step. I find their method of telling these stories fascinating, particularly the great care they take in describing and setting the scene. One is always able to "see" just what is happening and the environment in which it is happening. Nothing is really left to the imagination. Some readers might find the copious detail somewhat annoying but, to me, it just seems a very clean and clear way of telling a story.
What do You think about The Abominable Man (2015)?
It's been months since I read any of Sjowall and Wahloo's Martin Beck series. Dave had bought this seventh story, The Abominable Man, through his Amazon account so I got to share it via Household. As the novel was first published some forty years ago, I am including The Abominable Man as my 1970s read for the Goodreads / Bookcrossing Decade Challenge.The tense thriller had me gripped from the start and I couldn't put it down so read the whole book in an afternoon. This is one of the strongest storylines so far and I liked how Sjowall and Wahloo wove in biting criticism of the Swedish social system at the time without interrupting their narrative flow. The whole drama takes place in less than a day which is remarkably fast for this series, yet none of the intricate and careful plotting had been sacrificed. The large cast of characters, some new and some already known, are all realistically portrayed and I loved the sense of world-weariness that pervades every page. This is a thrilling thriller, but viewed through eyes that have already seen too much which gives it a distinctive voice. Many authors have since emulated Sjowall and Wahloo - in fact I have read uncannily similar plots in other books - but I would say that the Swedish series are still the best. And, other than the lack of technological gizmos, haven't dated at all.
—Stephanie
[9/10]Five decades after initial publication, the Story of Crime sequence by Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is still considered one of the best police procedurals ever written. Each book is introduced by a famous contemporary crime writer, and for this seventh episode it is the turn of local author Jens Lapidus to explain why and how it has marked his career: It was the feeling that someone had for the first time managed to describe criminality and police work in Stockholm adequately, in a way that was real, as it might actually have happened. Lapidus is referring also to the movie version of the book, where they used an alternative title : The Man on the Roof . Where he comments that the events might have happened all I could think about was how similar the case placed in the year 1972 by the authors is to an actual manhunt that I can only mention in spoilers: (view spoiler)[ the case of Christopher Dormer in February 2013, in Los Angeles, is a frighteningly accurate copycat of the disgruntled police officer from Stockholm. (hide spoiler)]
—Algernon
Book 7 looks critically at the problem of police brutality and how it is covered up within the infamous code of blue, even in Sweden. A senior policeman is murdered in the hospital, and as Beck investigates, he learns that the policeman often took the law into his own hands, dispensing justice. Apparently the book was published in 1971, the same year that "Dirty Harry" was released in the U.S. The final 25% was action-packed, putting the reader in the middle of a terrifying inner-city Stockholm scene: gunman-on-the-roof, lone-madman vs. the entire police force, with many innocents in between.
—Skip
