Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Roseanna  By  cover art

Roseanna

By: Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $16.36

Buy for $16.36

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

On a July afternoon, the body of a young woman is dredged from Sweden's beautiful Lake Vättern. Three months later, all that Police Inspector Martin Beck knows is that her name is Roseanna, that she came from Lincoln, Nebraska, and that she could have been strangled by any one of 85 people.

As the melancholic Beck narrows down the list of likely suspects, he is drawn increasingly to the enigma of the victim, a free-spirited traveller with a penchant for the casual sexual encounter, and to the psychopathology of a murderer with a distinctive - indeed, terrifying - sense of propriety.

With its authentically rendered settings, vividly realized characters, and command over the intricately interwoven details of police detection, Roseanna is a masterpiece of suspense and sadness.

©1967 Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (P)2011 Audible Ltd

What listeners say about Roseanna

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A real find

Would you consider the audio edition of Roseanna to be better than the print version?

Detective fiction pared back to its simplest elements yet absolutely gripping plot. We have another depressed Scandinavian cop but this would be the original as it dates back to the mid 60s before mobile phones or any kind of modern technology. How refreshing!

What other book might you compare Roseanna to and why?

The girl with the dragon tattoo - similar methods used

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A good Listen

A sincere 'thank you' to Audible for producing this series and to who ever suggested they do so.
.
What I like most about European Crime Writers starts here.

Personally I may have prefered a more neutral voice to Tom Weiner as the story is European and the 'American' voice jars a little at times. To his great credit though he does capture the mood very well. There is the dry intensity and routine of Crime Investigation that Weiner does capture while still giving glimpses of the investigators' humanity.

This was written before the mobile phone and the pc. People are still sending letters and using phone boxes.. Published in 1965. For a few hours I was a happy couch potato as I became immersed in the unfolding of this story and had the 'close the windows. lock the doors' response to a good thriller. This was the 1960's.

There does not seem to be a wasted word anywhere.

Hennig Mankell gives an excellent introduction to the authors, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö and the relevance they have to the European Crime Writers who came after them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

EXCELLENT

Each novel is introduced by a current crime author who describes his own first impressions of this ten book series. The introductions are good but when I go searching for novels by these current masters of the genre I am inevitably disappointed that their works are so unoriginal, heavy handed, overly violent, politically correct, formulaic, etc etc.

This novel Roseanna is the first in the series and may not be the best but is so much better than anything on offer today as new that I can only wish the authors were still writing and producing such satisfying and cleanly narrated stories. Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!