The Abominable Man

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The Abominable Man
Author Sjöwall and Wahlöö
Original title Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle
Country Sweden
Language Swedish
Series Martin Beck series
Publisher Norstedts Förlag
Publication date 1971
Pages 194 pp
ISBN ISBN 91-1-715611-4
OCLC 13383505
Preceded by Murder at the Savoy
Followed by The Locked Room

The Abominable Man (Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle) is a Swedish crime novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö from 1971 in the series revolving around police detective Martin Beck.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

A senior policeman known for brutality is violently knifed while in his hospital bed. Within a 24 hour period, Martin Beck searches through the policeman's many enemies for the killer, for whom the murder was only a precursor to a Charles Whitman-style attack on Stockholm.

[edit] Characters and their development

Martin Beck and his now grown-up daughter Ingrid develop their friendship; they eat out together.

[edit] Trivia

This is one of Donald Knuth's favourite novels: [1] he calls it "one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö's brilliantly Swedish detective novels".

[edit] Film

The book was made into a film in 1976, by director Bo Widerberg, renamed The Man on the Roof (Mannen på taket).

Preceded by
Murder at the Savoy
"Martin Beck" timeline, part 7 of 10 Succeeded by
The Locked Room