Roseanna: A Martin Beck Mystery

Tom Weiner's narration and voice characterizations were distracting and irritating. The original ten Martin Beck books were well-written, and the plots and character developments were exceptional. I can recommend the books, but not this audiobook. The narrator's performance ruined the experience for me. I still plan to buy the other audiobooks in the series, but I wish someone else had been chosen to narrate the stories because Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall wrote a great series of novels when they penned the Martin Beck mysteries. "Roseanne," along with the other books in the series, deserves 5 Stars, but Tom Weiner's narration only rates 1 Star. My overall rating for this audiobook is 3 Stars, and that's only out of respect for Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall.

[This review contains no spoilers about the plot or details of the mystery]

I say "Surprisingly Good" because I should not have liked this as much as I did.

I should not have liked it because I think Tom Weiner's narration is too fast and clipped. Sometimes, his voices are grating. At first I did not think I could get over it, but I did and kept on listening. I'm glad I did.

I should not have liked it because the detective is a pig to his wife. I don't need my detectives to be nice people, but his childishness was annoying and painful to hear about. In this troubled marriage, I felt sorry for his wife and had little compassion for him. But still I stuck it out.

Ultimately, what made this novel surprisingly good was a surprisingly good mystery. One of the key clues was clearly the inspiration for one of the key clues in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I guess Larrson read this book and one part of it stayed in his brain.

The novel is a police procedural set in the 1960's (the book was written in the 1960's). It is clever and well plotted. At the end it is really exciting and fun.

There is one stretch that was tough to get through: a series of interview transcripts with Q and A. The performance of that made me want to scream. Thankfully it was not more than 30 minutes.

This and other books in the series are priced very reasonably. For fans of Scandinavian murder mysteries (Hakan Nesser, Henning Mankell, and others), this series is an important inspiration. If you're hardcore about mysteries set in this part of the world, you have to read this series which is pretty much the beginning of the tradition.

The novel begins with a prologue by Henning Mankell, which explains why the series was so groundbreaking and important and well done. I left it for last. The cover image used for this book was annoying and sloppy. Every time I turned on the audiobook I had to look at a fat bare foot in the grass? Give me a break. A minor detail, but a grating one.

I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked this novel because I was not crazy about the narration. It felt too fast. I will continue with this series however because it was sharp and clever and I think I could get used to these characters.

Although this was written in the 1960s, the crime itself is timeless and the sparse writing and realistic details of detective work are still engaging. I enjoyed the reminder of the challenges of gathering information in the pre-internet/fax/mobile phone era. The narrator is good and reads at a quick enough pace to not drag even in the interludes during which the detectives are stumped or just tailing someone.

I found this book chilling when I first read it in the early 70's and having it read was wonderful - still creepy. I hope the other titles by Sjowall and Wahloo are brought along as well. The forward by Henning Mankell was frosting on the cake.

I chose this book because of the title! The story captured my interest early and held my interest to the end. Although it was published decades ago, the case details hold up. I have added other works by these authors to my Wish List.

Very different than modern day procedurals. Almost as if written like polices notes. Not much emotion but very descriptive. I discovered Roseanna by watching the interviews at the end of Beck on MHz Worldview so I just had to read of course. I will continue to read series in order.

top 5

character development & plot

He can do all the voices without pause--male-female-old man young man, etc. Very believable.

Unraveling the whodunit of the plot.

I highly recommend this series!

It's a compelling story, with some interesting twists, humor, and pathos of believable, sad, true characters, such as the protagonist, Martin Beck, a dispeptic, talented, but not all-knowing detective.

While some listeners seems to feel the narrator, Tom Weiner, is a pedestrian reader, I find him engaging, and able to provide a series of distinguishable characterizations.

I could have, but wanted to savor it.

If you think of mystery stories as too focused on police procedure, quick and easy tricks, and not enough real drama built out of the characters, you will enjoy Sjowall and Wahloo, whose writing is literary in the best of the word.

Hard to do. I really like this series, I've read it several times over the years.

Martin Beck-but I know the story arc since I've read the whole series. He doesn't seem all that interesting in this book.

Not really. Not only is his voice somewhat grating, but he mispronounces many of the character names. I lived in Denmark as a child and speak some Danish, Swedish is very similar and this has me constantly correcting his pronunciation in my head as I listen.

Ahhhh, how a narrator can make or break a good book! I am totally hooked on Swedish Authors. I've listened to all of Steig Larson, Henning Mankell, and Joe Nesbo. I was so excited when I listened to Henning Mankell's forward on this book. But alas, the narrator offered NOTHING. Sometimes, I am annoyed when the narrator over dramatizes a book and have thought to myself, "please, just read it." But this reader was so boring that I considered stopping. Narrators are so important. They really can either add to or detract from a well written book. This book is worth listening to, but you have to get passed the narrator. If you like someone to simply read the book. Then Tom Weiner is your man.