The book sadly comes to an end and you end up reading the last sixty or so pages in a rush waiting and hoping it reaches the sort of climax that would be fitting for a book that is so tightly written. The fact it does is because the central character of Martin Beck, who is flanked by other police officers who start to become core to the story, is so well developed. He allows the case to dominate his every thought, to the extent he almost misses out on getting his Christmas presents. He drifts from his wife and family and becomes obsessed with catching the killer. At the end a brilliant description of his inability to write a simple note betrays the emotion that he bottles up inside.
Bullet points between pages 187 – 245
* To try and catch the man Folke Bengtsson they are convinced is the killer they search through the police offices to find a woman who resembles Roseanna who can act as a honey trap to entice the killer to try and strike again
* Beck has to wait weeks for the flirtation to work – under the ruse that she is using the transportation office where Bengtsson works to move furniture – but it takes weeks for her to get him to change his routine
* All of a sudden she phones Beck, who is waiting with colleagues for a nightly vigil hoping Bengtsson will call, and tells him that the suspect is watching her window from the street
* They tail him and for a few nights he walks around for hours and stares at her windows but never goes up and makes contact so Beck ups the stakes getting the police woman to pretend to bump into Bengtsson and suggest he calls her
* It seems to set the man off walking round the city for hours until he turns up looking up at the windows of the police woman causing her to phone Beck and ask for his officers to get into place to protect her and catch the man
* But the key being turned in the door is not one of the detectives but Bengtsson who takes her by surprise but meanwhile the detectives are stuck in traffic and desperate to get to the flat
* When they do Bengtsson is not far from killing the policewoman, who is naked and struggling for her life, and it takes Kollberg almost breaking his arm to subdue him and get him to the station
* There Beck interviews him and gets him in an angry state to admit that he killed Roseanna and tried to kill the police woman because they were dirty and disgusting and repulsed him
* Beck tries to write a telegram to inform the American detective who helped him with the case so much that they have got the man and he confessed but cannot spell immediately and finally walks through the snow and heads home
A review will follow in the next couple of days…
Bullet points between pages 187 – 245
* To try and catch the man Folke Bengtsson they are convinced is the killer they search through the police offices to find a woman who resembles Roseanna who can act as a honey trap to entice the killer to try and strike again
* Beck has to wait weeks for the flirtation to work – under the ruse that she is using the transportation office where Bengtsson works to move furniture – but it takes weeks for her to get him to change his routine
* All of a sudden she phones Beck, who is waiting with colleagues for a nightly vigil hoping Bengtsson will call, and tells him that the suspect is watching her window from the street
* They tail him and for a few nights he walks around for hours and stares at her windows but never goes up and makes contact so Beck ups the stakes getting the police woman to pretend to bump into Bengtsson and suggest he calls her
* It seems to set the man off walking round the city for hours until he turns up looking up at the windows of the police woman causing her to phone Beck and ask for his officers to get into place to protect her and catch the man
* But the key being turned in the door is not one of the detectives but Bengtsson who takes her by surprise but meanwhile the detectives are stuck in traffic and desperate to get to the flat
* When they do Bengtsson is not far from killing the policewoman, who is naked and struggling for her life, and it takes Kollberg almost breaking his arm to subdue him and get him to the station
* There Beck interviews him and gets him in an angry state to admit that he killed Roseanna and tried to kill the police woman because they were dirty and disgusting and repulsed him
* Beck tries to write a telegram to inform the American detective who helped him with the case so much that they have got the man and he confessed but cannot spell immediately and finally walks through the snow and heads home
A review will follow in the next couple of days…
