The Man Who Went Up in Smoke

A Martin Beck Mystery

By: Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

His holiday with his family has just begun, but a phone call sends Martin Beck packing off to Budapest, where a boorish journalist has vanished without a trace. With the aid of the coolly efficient local police, who do business while soaking at the public baths, Beck must troll about in the Eastern Europe underworld for a man nobody knows - while he is at the risk of vanishing along with his quarry.

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke gives us the dedicated Beck at his most engaging: indulging in the sumptuous Hungarian cuisine, longing for a decent cigarette, and evading a predatory nymphet, even as he pursues a case whose international boundaries grow with every new clue.

Crack another case with Martin Beck.

©1997 Random House, Inc. (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent series

I really enjoy the Martin Beck books. They can be a little slow or sparse at times but it seems to lend to the mood.

Being written and set in Sweden (usually) adds a unique flavor to the book for me as I have never been there.

A Strong Entry in the Series

This is one of the oddest episodes of the Martin Beck series in that it focuses most clearly on Beck -- the pseudo-protagonist and namesake of convenience -- with the rest of the series' characters barely making an appearance, and Sweden itself disappearing into the distance as Beck travels to Budapest for his investigation.

Kollberg and the other members of the National Murder Squad barely factor into The Man Who Went Up In Smoke, and that is both sad and glad tidings for readers: sad because they are such an important part of most of the stories; glad because it is nice to focus on Martin Beck for a while and just linger on his detachment as he goes through the procedure of figuring out what happened to missing Swedish journalist, Alf Matsson.

It is also nice to see Budapest as a character, and for readers of Henning Mankell or China Mieville, the environs of Budapest will be familiar for completely different but no less fascinating reasons.

Probably the best part of listening to this book, however, is the silky gravel of Tom Weiner's voice. It absolutely IS the Martin Beck novels to me, and in a lesser chapter in the series, like The Man Who Went Up In Smoke, any of the cracks are puttied over by Weiner's delivery. I am guessing Weiner doesn't read the Swedish Language audios of this series, and I feel sad for native Swedes that he doesn't because his voice is a perfect match for the National Murder Squad and their decalogue.

Loved it!

I love the style of writing. You pictures yourself in Budapest. Narrator is great. Story is great.

if you like Nordic noir

I came to the Beck novels from the TV adaptation. I find the narration and the storylines to be much more in-depth and interesting than I expected. In this one, Beck finds himself alone for 5 days in Hungary, and I found myself missing his coworkers quite a bit. The ending was a surprise and I am now hooked on the Martin Beck stories on Audible.

Well written!

Glad to find this series! Excellent writing! And thankful that it’s available as an audiobook on audible! Even ‘included’ with membership!

The other books are better

My review contains spoilers!

This book is not as good as the other books. You want to listen to them in the right order. You can still borrow them for free on Audible!

Why was Åke so sure he would find a way to get back home!? The people working at the hotel might have known Alf! If he'd just left the body in the building he would probably have gotten away with murder! Why did he leave Alf's suitcase and passport at the hotel? If he'd thrown away his things they would have thought he'd got lost in Hungary.

Kollberg went to a pub where Alf used to hang out with the other reporters. His friends had been talking about Alf going to Budapest to see a girl he'd met. Åke would have known this too!

Martin asked the guy at the Swedish embassy for help to go home the following day. Maybe it was difficult to get a flight from Hungary to Stockholm. Martin flies to Copenhagen and takes the ferry to Sweden. Instead of getting a train or plane to Stockholm he goes to the police station in Malmö!

It feels like part of the book is missing here!

Both Martin Beck and Lennart Kollberg are at the police station in Malmö wanting to talk with Backlund about when Alf had been attacked with a knife in January. How did they find this out and why are they both there at the same time!?

Why didn't Kollberg call Backlund? Malmö is 380 miles (612 kilometers) south of Stockholm! They even visit the guy who had supposedly attacked Alf.

As usual the narrator butchers a lot of Swedish names!
He calls Alf "Af"! Kollberg gets a completely different name: "Karlberge"!
Sven-Erik Molin is called "Malin" which is a woman's name.

A couple of words are not translated right. Korgstol is called a wicker chair at least in the US. In the book it's called a basket chair.

"Gräs änkling" is a Swedish expression which basically means you are widower for a short time when your wife is away. In the book it's called "grass widower".

My first Martin Beck

I thoroughly enjoyed my 1st Martin Beck police 🚔 procedural. By mistake I read the 2nd one first. I will probably read 📚 all 10 of them.
A journalist goes missing in Hungary and Martin Beck is sent to Hungary 🇭🇺 from Sweden 🇸🇪 and his family vacation to find him. Not an easy thing to do.
Audio recording.

Love Martin Beck

The cynical view of Sweden, it's people and its politics is both amusing and entertaining. There is still enough caring and thought among the the committed cops of the homicide department to make this a fun listen.

Better than expected

I really enjoyed this book . The descriptions of characters was supurb. I reccomend this series

need a new translation ??

I listened to about 3/4 of this and finally gave up. A dull translation of a dated book.