This was my first foray into the world of Martin Beck as I managed to pick this book and the next in the series for 39p each from a charity shop. Frankly, I'm glad I did not pay much more...
Don't get me wrong, I think this was a well written story with lots of decent characters but for someone so used to detective fiction, the plot let me down a little. *VAGUELY SPOILERIFIC* I found that the line of inquiry followed by the detectives in this story was deep, realistic and had suspects in abundance. However, as the story progressed (about 3/4 of the way through) the leads took a decided left-turn, shedding light on a new angle and motive. Maybe the book was trying to say "this is how real investigations go" or "social prejudice causes inaccurate pre-occupations in investigations" but all I heard was "the first portion of this book was pointless - you've just wasted your time". Perhaps such a twist of direction would have been more welcome if the seeds had been planted earlier (or perhaps I was just too dumb to see them) but it seemed to have come from nowhere making you wonder what was the point of the build up of the story.
I may get around to reading the other one I picked up (to see if the problem is the book rather than the author), but I've got other things to go on with for the time being.
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