Murder at the Savoy (Martin Beck, #6) in Reading the Detectives

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Murder at the Savoy (Martin Beck, #6)

Maj Sj枚wall,

Per Wahl枚枚

Start date: March 15, 2024

Finish date: April 16, 2024

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What Members Thought

Mar 05, 2024 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Published in 1970, this is the sixth in the Martin Beck series, published in 1970 and set in 1967. It is July, a hot summer evening, and there is a dinner party at the Savoy. The dinner party guests comprise of Viktor Palmgren, a Corporation President, his younger, trophy wife, a district manager and his 'executive secretary', another district manager and his wife, plus the vice-president of the company. As Palmgren stands in order to make a speech, a man walks behind him, calmly shoots him and ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-scandinavia

In the city of Malmo, which lies across the Baltic from the coast of Denmark, a group of people are having dinner together at the Savoy hotel. A man enters the dining room and shoots one of them, a wealthy industrialist who promptly falls into a plate of mashed potatoes that surround a fish casserole. The shooter leaves through a window and he's gone. With very little clues as to the killer's identity, the police begin to focus on the dead man, Victor Palmgren, and his associates. Things become In the city of Malmo, which lies across the Baltic from the coast of Denmark, a group of people are having dinner together at the Savoy hotel. A man enters the dining room and shoots one of them, a wealthy industrialist who promptly falls into a plate of mashed potatoes that surround a fish casserole. The shooter leaves through a window and he's gone. With very little clues as to the killer's identity, the police begin to focus on the dead man, Victor Palmgren, and his associates. Things become rather complicated when Martin Beck, Chief Inspector of the National Homicide Squad is told to move quickly on the case and get it closed, because Palmgren has been involved in some shady transactions abroad which might cause some embarrassment to some in the upper echelons of Swedish politics.

Murder at the Savoy is the sixth book and doesn't have the intensity of some of its predecessors in the series, but it's still a great read. As always, Wahloo and Sjowall take their opportunity to voice their opinions about the social problems in Sweden of the time. This time, though, the authors also ask their readers to consider the very nature of crime itself, and the question of justice, for that matter. While most people consider crime to be under the purview of the police and the legal system, there are those for whom there is no recourse, especially when one is at the mercy of the whims of the rich and famous. This is one of those issues that is never pertinent only to a time or a place -- it is an ongoing reality of life. This is one of the characteristics of the series as a whole -- the books may have been written decades ago, but the authors' observations remain appropriate in the present time. As with the other books, there are memorable moments of humor during a serious investigation, and the characters continue to grow and change, acting very human all of the time. And another hallmark of this series continues here: the crime, the investigation, the characters' lives and the social commentary all occur succinctly within a relatively short amount of space with no superfluous distractions.

I am loving this series and have the final four stacked up, ready to read. I can't think of another author (or pair of authors) who have done what Wahloo and Sjowall have accomplished here in the realm of crime fiction. Just because these books were written some time ago, they're not antiquated: they've still got a lot to offer readers who are either just entering the genre or those who've been in it a while and have only focused on current offerings. Again, you can read this as a standalone, but to get the most out of the series, I would suggest starting with the first book, Roseanna. ...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Bev rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, police-procedural, swedish-mystery, silver-age-mystery, mount-tbr-2016

Murder at the Savoy (1970) is the sixth novel in Martin Beck series of Swedish police procedurals by Maj Sj枚wall and Per Wahl枚枚. In this installment, Viktor Palmgren, a wealthy and powerful industrialist is shot while delivering an after-dinner speech in the Savoy Hotel dining room in the small coastal town of Malm枚. The killer walks calmly into the room, shoots Palmgren, and exits via the nearby window. No one really paid attention to him as he walked into the dining room and by the time everyo Murder at the Savoy (1970) is the sixth novel in Martin Beck series of Swedish police procedurals by Maj Sj枚wall and Per Wahl枚枚. In this installment, Viktor Palmgren, a wealthy and powerful industrialist is shot while delivering an after-dinner speech in the Savoy Hotel dining room in the small coastal town of Malm枚. The killer walks calmly into the room, shoots Palmgren, and exits via the nearby window. No one really paid attention to him as he walked into the dining room and by the time everyone realizes that the subdued "pop" was actually a gunshot and the reason Palmgren is now facedown in his mashed potatoes is because a bullet is lodged beneath his ear the man is gone. The witnesses can only provide vague descriptions of a medium tall, average-looking guy in a suit jacket with mismatched pants and a light-colored shirt. Not much for the police to go on.

When it is discovered that Palmgren had international connections, some high-level folks get a case of anxiety and Chief Inspector Martin Beck is sent to take over the investigation. He finds that Palmgren was a pretty despicable individual whom nobody really liked, but Beck has difficulty finding a motive big enough to incite murder. By the time he sifts through what few clues he and the police team he marshals can gather and interviews all the witnesses and suspects, Beck has more sympathy for the murderer than he does for the victim. As usual, Beck gets his man (or woman, as the case may be), but this particular arrest doesn't provide quite the satisfaction of past cases.

This is a more sombre entry in the Beck series. The murderer's life is a bleak one and Palmgren is morally responsible. It is difficult not to sympathize with the killer even though taking another's life should never be an option. Beck wrestles with his own sympathies for the killer and there are also developments in Beck's personal life that provide more depth to the character. A book that encourages the reader to think about actions and the repercussions that take place--both the obvious results and those that might not be anticipated.

Sj枚wall and Wahl枚枚 write pure police procedurals. We follow the detectives as they investigate and know exactly what they find and what they think about those discoveries. There are no red herrings to mystify the reader while the detective smugly gathers clues and the denouement is not a surprise. Just a solid story of police work, crime and consequences.

First posted on my blog . Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Sep 05, 2009 Jenn Estepp rated it liked it

Shelves: sleuths-and-gumshoes, libraries-are-great

solid mystery in the martin beck series. not my favorite and in a way there's a lot of plodding, then something random and key happens and everything falls together. which is maybe an accurate look at how real life cases get solved, but doesn't necessarily make for the most compelling reading. ...more

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