Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sowall and Per Wahloo

Murder at the Savoy
by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Translated from: Swedish
Rating: ★★★★
Series: Martin Beck #6
Publication Date: January 1, 1970
Genre: mystery: modern (1980-present)
Pages: 256
ReRead?: No

The shocking sixth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, finds Beck investigating a brutal assassination. With an introduction by Arne Dahl.

When Viktor Palmgren, a powerful Swedish industrialist is shot during his after-dinner speech in the luxurious Hotel Savoy, it sends a shiver down the spine of the international money markets and terrifies the tiny town of Malmo. No one in the restaurant can identify the gunman, and local police are sheepishly baffled. That's when Beck takes over the scene and quickly picks through Palmgren's background. What he finds is a web of vice so despicable that it's hard for him to imagine who wouldn't want Palmgren dead, but that doesn't stop him and his team of dedicated detectives from tackling one of their most intriguing cases yet.

This is the 6th book in the Martin Beck series, and the 5th that I’ve read because book 5 wasn’t available for kindle from my library. I did request it in print format from my other library, and will read it once it shows up, but this one was accessible so I decided to go with it.

This book was striking to me because it foreshadowed Luigi Mangione murder of the UHC executive Brian Thompson. It’s 1968 Sweden and a rich man is murdered while eating dinner at the Savoy Hotel in Malmo. The crime isn’t solved until the last 20% or so, when Martin Beck and his fellow detectives get an investigative break and figure out the perpetrator and (his/her) motive.

The same inequality issues as today are operating in 1968 Sweden:

Since the housing shortage had been kept alive artificially for many years, even these apartments were in great demand, and the rents were close to astronomical…

You must realize that this society has grown dependent on people like Palmgren and Broberg. In many cases, they have more leverage in the way the country’s run than either the Government or Parliament and such. So even people like us have to accept them.”

Crime fiction tells the story of a society with as much accuracy and perception as literary fiction. It’s not possible to really understand a culture unless we reckon with the crime that it tolerates and the crime that it doesn’t.

There’s an old joke: “a man who steals a hundred dollars is a thief; a man who steals a million dollars is a businessman and a man who steals a billion dollars is the President.”

OK, I added that last clause, but I’m not wrong.