Cop Killer (Martin Beck Series #9) Book

In this penultimate installment of the classic Martin Beck series, Beck is drawn into a case that turns up mysterious echoes of his past cases. Now head of the National Murder Squad, Beck is called in to a sleepy Swedish town to investigate a woman's disappearance. When she is found already murdered, her body dredged from the bottom of a lake, suspicions swirl around Folke Bengtsson, the killer Beck caught in the first novel of the series for committing a similar murder, and who has since been released. But Beck is beginning to doubt that Bengtsson is guilty of any murder at all.

Library Journal

Sjöwall and her common-law husband, the late Wahlöö, together cowrote a series of ten police procedurals set in Sweden and featuring National Homicide Squad chief Martin Beck. This ninth entry, originally published in 1974, follows Beck and his assistant, Lennart Kollberg, as they investigate two cases: that of a murdered woman and the shooting death of a police officer. The lead suspect in the latter case is Folke Bengtsson, a convicted murderer who appeared in the series opener, Roseanna (1965). Beck, however, harbors doubts about his guilt. Throughout this low-key narrative, we see political infighting among the members of the Swedish police force and Beck and Kollberg's dissatisfaction with the status quo. Veteran voice artist Tom Weiner does his usual excellent job narrating this series, the entirety of which is available from Blackstone Audio. Highly recommended.—Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Parkersburg Lib.