Historic crime

It is slightly disconcerting to find that books which you enjoyed (when hot off the press) as a young woman are now being described as forgotten or even unknown classics, the progenitor of all the Scandinavian crime fiction now in vogue. But such is the case with the Martin Beck novels by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, which I devoured eagerly in their familiar yellow Gollancz jackets in the 60s & 70s, until the series ended with the 10th tale.

I have read barely any of their successors – which tend to be too grim & violent for my taste, as is the case generally with modern day contributions to the genre.

The police procedural was a sub-genre virtually unknown in English crime fiction of the time. With the possible exception of John Creasey’s Commander Gideon of Scotland Yard; even where the hero detective was a policeman, rather than an amateur sleuth, they tended to follow the Sherlock Holmes model of getting to the solution by pure ratiocination (bounced off a sidekick) rather than any hard forensic slog or teamwork.

That was not true of American crime writing however, although it came as quite a surprise to hear in Mark Lawson’s programme that Sjowall and Wahloo took their inspiration from Ed McBain’s 87th precinct series. It leaves me wondering how well similar authors would stand up to rediscovery – maybe Hilary Waugh’s Chief Fellows or any of those by the prolific Elizabeth Linington under her various noms de plume.

All those American policemen were uxorious (especially Luis Mendoza & Steve Carella) &, in many cases, devoted fathers of small children. What had not occurred to me, until I heard it on the Mark Lawson programme, is that Martin Beck is the prototype for all modern (compulsorily) non-philogamous policemen.

Links
BBC Radio4 blog: Martin Beck
BBC Radio 4: Foreign Bodies
John Creasey
Gideon of the Yard
Hillary Waugh
Elizabeth Linington
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