by Maj Sjöwall
Part of Martin Beck
First published 2009
A gunman opens fire on a Stockholm bus during a cold, rainy night. Nine passengers die in the attack. The newspapers call the shooter a madman, but Superintendent Martin Beck sees something else. One victim was his own detective, an ambitious young officer. Beck refuses to believe this was random violence. He tracks down the dead detective's girlfriend. Together they piece together the final days before the murder. Beck discovers his officer was working on something important. The investigation expands across Sweden as police search for the killer. Beck realizes this massacre connects to an old case that never closed. The detective may have gotten too close to dangerous answers. The fourth Martin Beck mystery by Swedish crime writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö follows the superintendent as he unravels a conspiracy hidden behind apparent madness. Beck must solve both crimes to understand why nine people had to die on a Stockholm bus.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, detective-story, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Stockholm, Sweden
Period: 20th-century
211 pages · Paperback · Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder