MARTIN BECK COVER STORY

Maxine of Petrona makes an interesting comment about the branding of the Harper Perennial Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo books as the Martin Beck series. The novels do show a teamwork approach to investigation and while Martin Beck is not so dominant a character in many of the books [The Fire Engine That Disappeared for example] he does bind the series together. 

Maxine states it very well when she says 'Beck's own life is a mirror of the world depicted by the authors.......As society degenerates from naive optimism into soulless oppression the man's dead personal landscape slowly emerges into the light.' Read the full post here.

The last few paragraphs of the ten book series sum up Martin Beck's situation, but I won't spoil them for you. 

As you will see from the covers of a Harper Perennial from 2007, and a 1976 edition of The Man on The Balcony there was less emphasis on the Martin Beck name 32 years ago.