This book uses time in a way that few others would dare to because it is slow and awkward waiting with Martin beck for the breaks in the case. When they come it just means more work and more waiting. But as you read the tension is slowly building and it is one of those books that would be a great holiday read because it is almost unputdownable. The last few pages beckon tomorrow and it will be a real shame ending it if as I expect the ending is written as well as the rest of the book.
“’Do you think he did it?’ asked Kollberg.
Martin Beck stood in the middle of the floor and looked at his right hand.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’m sure he did.’”
Bullet points between pages 74 – 186
* Having identified the name of the victim Beck now does all he can to try and find out as much as he can about her character and gets back from the US a picture of an independent woman who took the lead in sexual relationships
* Her former boyfriend reveals she had a hungry sexual appetite and was very much in charge of the relationship initiating the meetings and having sex just barely hours after the first date had started
* Meanwhile the detectives are getting all of the background on the passengers and start requesting photographs and a breakthrough seems to come from the US where along with some photos there is some video footage including Roseanna with a mystery man
* After lots of investigating the man turns out to be a passenger who boarded just for some of the journey and as a result was not included on any passenger list but the police spread around a still of the film image to all police stations
* Meanwhile Beck drifts through sleepless nights and ill feeling days smoking too much and avoiding almost any contact with his wife and children becoming physically linked to the progress of the investigation
* Beck tracks down two girls who worked as waitresses on the boat Roseanna was murdered on and one seems to have had a relationship with the prime suspect and no sooner had Beck interviewed her than she runs away – flees for her life
* Medical records show that she had been the victim of an attack with her fingers broken and then having something blunt shoved up inside her to the extent that the hospital thought she might have tried to perform a solo abortion
* A policeman on a delivery notices a man who he believes is from the film and he is tailed for a fortnight and Beck brings him in and questions him and then lets him go with no progress apparently made but Beck is now convinced he has just shaken hands goodbye with Roseanna’s killer
More tomorrow…
