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Murder on the Thirty-First Floor

Per Wahlöö

$19.99

Paperback

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English
Vintage
02 April 2012
A chilling dystopian classic crime story from the godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction.

'The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction' Jo Nesbo

In an unnamed country, in an unnamed year sometime in the future, Chief Inspector Jensen of the Sixteenth Division is called in after the publishers controlling the entire country's newspapers and magazines receive a threat to blow up their building, in retaliation for a murder they are accused of committing. The building is evacuated, but the bomb fails to explode and Jensen is given seven days in which to track down the letter writer.

Jensen has never had a case he could not solve before, but as his investigation into the identity of the letter writer begins it soon becomes clear that the directors of the publishers have their own secrets, not least the identity of the 'Special Department' on the thirty first floor; the only department not permitted to be evacuated after the bomb threat.

Author of the Martin Beck series.
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 14mm
Weight:   162g
ISBN:   9780099554769
ISBN 10:   0099554763
Pages:   224
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Born in 1926, Per Wahloo was a Swedish writer and journalist who, alongside his own novels, collaborated with his wife, Maj Sjowall, on the bestselling Martin Beck crime series which are credited as inspiring writers as varied as Agatha Christie, Henning Mankell and Jonathan Franzen. In 1971 the fourth novel in the series, The Laughing Policeman, won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Per Wahloo died in 1975. Sarah Death has translated the work of many Swedish authors from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, including Alexander Ahndoril, Steve Sem-Sandberg and Carl-Johan Vallgren, and Norwegian Linn Ullman (A Blessed Child was named Translated Novel of the Year by the Independent). She has twice won the triennial George Bernard Shaw Prize, for Kerstin Ekman's The Angel House, and Ellen Mattson's Snow. In 2008 she was awarded the Swedish Academy's Translation Prize.

Reviews for Murder on the Thirty-First Floor

Something quite special and fascinating: a use of the detective form to present a brooding and biting forecast of the future - or of a possible future New York Times Book Review The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction -- Jo Nesbo [Sarah Death's translation] seems to catch the bleakness perfectly... Wahloo's solo work deserves to be considered in the same context as Zamyatin, Capek, Orwell, or Durrenmatt...high praise indeed. -- Michael Carlson Irresistible Targets They are economical and move with great pace... Two unique novels have been restored to the canon of European crime fiction in English. Don't miss -- Bob Cornwell Crime Time Wahloo would prompt many writers to use crime fiction as a way of holding a mirror to social evils. Here the investigation is tense, the murder shocking, but at heart the crime is against journalism and intellectual freedom Public Sphere


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