Order of Martin Beck Books

Order of Martin Beck Books

Martin Beck by Maj Sjowall Per Wahloo

Martin Beck is the lead character in a series of Scandinavian crime fiction novels by Swedish novelists Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Martin Beck is a Stockholm police detective. Martin is described as a tall smoker and has a weak immune system. He has two teenage sons. Al of the novels have been adapted to film and/or television in various languages, most notably by Walter Matthau in the 1973 film The Laughing Policeman. The series is also known as The Story of a Crime.

Sjowall and Wahloo started their Martin Beck series in 1965 with the novel Roseanna. The series lasted ten novels, concluding in 1976 with the novel The Terrorists. Below is a list of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo’s Martin Beck books in order of when they were originally released (which is the same as their chronological order):

Publication Order of Martin Beck Books

(By: Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö)

Roseanna

(1965)

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke

(1966)

The Man on the Balcony

(1967)

The Laughing Policeman / Investigation of Murder

(1968)

The Fire Engine that Disappeared

(1969)

Murder at the Savoy

(1970)

The Abominable Man

(1971)

The Locked Room

(1972)

Cop Killer

(1974)

The Terrorists

(1975)

Note: The Laughing Policeman was also published under the title of Investigation of Murder.