The Laughing Policeman
A Martin Beck Police Mystery
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Narrated by:
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Tom Weiner
About this listen
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Editorial reviews
Despite grim bones, The Laughing Policeman mostly tracks as an acidically funny, chewy tangle of suspense framed by moral decrees on nymphomania, corruption, Ritalina pep pills, and the Vietnam War. Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are the husband and wife crime novelists behind the 10-volume Martin Beck series. The Laughing Policeman is audiobook four. No need to download sequentially though. These are sturdy enough to stand alone as individually realized thrillers.
in this installment, homicide detectives Beck and Lennart Kollberg puzzle out why nine strangers, including an ambitious rookie from their own squad, were gunned down on a red double-decker bus in Stockholm. Neither Beck nor cynical, plump Kollberg are reverential about the gumshoe grind, which lends The Laughing Policeman authentic hum as a police procedural. Wahlöö and Sjöwall reveal ingenuity in plotting both old and new murders. Their quirky gang is orderly and methodical in chasing leads; ruling out suspects; exposing long-buried secrets; and generally picking away at clues until, finally, a hunch pays off.
The Laughing Policeman is atmospheric and briny as narrated by Tom Weiner, who deftly shifts between regional Swedish dialects without plunging into farce. Beck's interior weariness can strain Weiner. At times he cakes on a ragged fatigue, transmitting Beck as Hamlet. Weiner also lumbers as Åsa Torell, the brittle fiancée of the murdered rookie. He waters down her moody rages of dialogue into a whispery purr, so when Åsa shrieks at Kollberg, "Go to the devil!", it's like he's sucking a caramel. The shadowy Kollberg is Weiner's sweet spot, and he teases out the newlywed detective's lust for his wife, Gun, with a pleading, gravelly tug in his throat. Välkommen to love, Aquavit, and moody vapors. Nita Rao
Critic reviews
- Edgar Award, Best Novel, 1971
"I've read The Laughing Policeman six or eight times. Each time I reach the final twist on the final page, I shiver afresh." (Jonathan Franzen)
"A tantalizing, intricate tale." (New York Times Book Review)
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Lurking in the dark corners of J. P. Beaumont's bizarre case was not just a demented mind obsessed with murder, but secrets so deadly that even a street-tough cop could die guessing.
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Until proven guilty
- By Jean on 04-21-11
By: J. A. Jance
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The Bat
- The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel
- By: Jo Nesbø, Don Bartlett
- Narrated by: Joh Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the murder.
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Not as good as the others....
- By KP on 07-10-13
By: Jo Nesbø, and others
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God Save the Mark
- A Novel of Crime and Confusion
- By: Donald E. Westlake
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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What, you ask, is a Fred Fitch? Well, for one thing, Fred Fitch is the man with the most extensive collection of fake receipts, phony bills of sale, and counterfeit sweepstakes tickets in the Western hemisphere, and possibly in the entire world. For another thing, Fred Fitch may be the only New York City resident in the twentieth century to buy a money machine.
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American Gods for the Grifter set!
- By William R. on 09-06-11
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The Case of the Velvet Claws
- Perry Mason Series, Book 1
- By: Erle Stanley Gardner
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Married Eva Griffin has been caught with a prominent congressman, and is ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid hush money to protect the politician. But first Perry Mason tracks down the publisher of the blackmailing tabloid and discovers a shocking secret, which eventually leads to Mason being accused of murder. This is the first Perry Mason mystery and our introduction to secretary Della Street, detective Paul Drake, and the great lawyer himself.
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Enter Perry Mason
- By David S. Mathew on 04-10-17
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel
- By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
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A Classic Mystery with Wonderful Characters
- By Robert on 12-22-08
By: Stieg Larsson, and others
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The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
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Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
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The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
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Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
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Jar City
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason’s novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets.
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Cerebral Police Procedural
- By Aaron on 09-14-13
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Night Soldiers
- By: Alan Furst
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst is widely recognized as master of the historical spy novel. Furst’s works are vivid evocations of long-forgotten heroes and feature plots that unfold to the inexorable cadence of history. Night Soldiers is a simultaneously thrilling and illuminating tale of espionage set in 1934.
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Best Alan Furst novel!
- By Placeholder on 04-27-11
By: Alan Furst
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New York Dead
- Stone Barrington, Book 1
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone is always telling Stone Barrington that he’s too smart to be a cop, but it’s pure luck that places him on the streets in the dead of night, just in time to witness the horrifying incident that turns his life inside out. Suddenly he is on the front page of every New York newspaper and his life is hopelessly entwined in the increasingly shocking life (and perhaps death) of Sasha Nijinsky, the country’s hottest and most beautiful television anchorwoman.
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Ridiculous
- By laall on 11-11-13
By: Stuart Woods
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The Eighth Commandment
- By: Lawrence Sanders
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Damaretion, the prized Greek coin from Archibald Havistock's collection, disappears and appraiser Mary Lou "Dunk" Bateson comes under suspicion, Bateson, a cop, and an insurance investigator set out to solve the crime.
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It was a nice listen
- By John on 10-01-12
By: Lawrence Sanders
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The Letter Writer
- A Novel
- By: Dan Fesperman
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Who exactly is Danziger? He's a writer of letters for illiterate immigrants on Manhattan's Lower East Side - "a steadfast practitioner of concealing and forgetting" for his clients, and perhaps for himself: He hints at a much worldlier past. What and whoever he really is or has been, he has a seemingly boundless knowledge of the city and its denizens. And he knows much more than the mere identity of the floating corpse.
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Mobsters and Cops, NYC, 1942
- By RueRue on 07-22-16
By: Dan Fesperman
What listeners say about The Laughing Policeman
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Regina
- 05-19-10
Review - Laughing Policeman
It's a classic, but a little too much pausing the action to denounce the real criminals - capitalists. Very late 1960s. Dreary too, and sexist. But hey, it moves right along. I don't regret buying it. Narrator ok.
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7 people found this helpful
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- AlexD
- 05-12-21
Good book, awful narrator
I really wanted to like it, but it's impossible. No idea of what the narrator was trying to do, slurring word endings an mispronouncing in a monotonous annoying voice. Skip it and read the book.
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- Nancy
- 01-12-22
Surprise me
I really didn’t expect this to be as good as it was lots of twist interns a bit of humor and a good story great decoration I enjoyed it.
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- Sara
- 05-17-23
Another good Martin Beck
Excellent performance of a very good follow-up to the previous Martin Beck procedurals. Great series.
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- SM
- 02-07-19
hard-boiled genre, not nordic noir narrator
Wrong pronunciation of Swedish names and places, slurring words and even whole sentences when imitating either Humphrey-Bogart-hard-boiled-detective-style accents or British accents. Only God knows how he even made the match between accents and characters (neither hard-boiled nor British accent have anything to do with Swedish characters). In order to understand his staccato narration + the slurred words I had to listen to this audiobook at 0.85 speed and only sometime near the end of the book I managed to figure out the names of some (not all) of the detectives (except for Martin Beck, who, luckily enough, has a very simple name). You can actually hear when he stumbled over Swedish names and had to do the recording over again. This is something I might expect from a mediocre volunteer on Librivox, not from a professional narrator working on a commercial production.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Meg
- 07-12-09
Enjoyable
An absorbing fast paced story; well written. The implied social commentary is a little depressing.
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6 people found this helpful
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- BTRart
- 10-06-23
The Laughing Policeman
A fine tuned spy caper by Maj & Per, Every character has unique edges & nuances of style. 😎
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- Kenzo
- 12-05-23
one of the great Martin Beck stories
This is a wonderful novel, one of the best in a great series. Unfortunately the narration leaves a lot to be desired - in particular the voicing of the various characters is forced and unnatural. Pity.
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- Sue Church
- 09-30-21
Boring
Don't waste your time. The narrator warns you in the prologue that the authors were Marxists, and cautions that we now consider the hippy era free love to be normal behavior, blah, blah. sorry, I don't need anyone to tell me how to listen to a book.
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- Knowing What Matters
- 03-06-23
I found this almost impossible to follow, and do not recommend it to anyone unless you’re Swedish
1- the names of the characters all sound alike, and they did not do a good job of explaining who was who, and making sure we understood the different characters.
2-the voices for the different characters were horrendous and too many sound alike, so it made it hard to distinguish, who was saying what when.
3- as an American you needed to either be reading the book so you see the names in print over and over again with the spelling or you need to see it as a movie to visualize the characters.
4- I stuck with this until the last 45 minutes. I will play parts over and over again, trying to discern who was who, and what was actually happening. Eventually, I got tired of putting in so much effort and just decided to let the end play. I never exactly understood who did it or why.
5-evidently, the movie starred Walter Matthau as Detective Beck. I thought this was interesting, considering that detective Martin back has the smallest part.
I absolutely do not recommend spending your time listening to this. Watch the movie instead.
Oh, and by the way, I have never ever recommended watching a movie over reading the book. That is how poor a production I feel this was,
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