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In the penultimate installment of this masterful crime-fiction series, Martin Beck, now head of the National Murder Squad, is called in to a sleepy part of the countryside to investigate a woman's disappearance. What Beck doesn't know is that the woman has already been murdered, her body dumped in a swamp. At the same time, a midnight shoot-out between three cops and two teenage boys ends with one policeman dead.

As Beck and his partner, Lennart Kollberg, investigate both cases, they encounter two figures from their earlier cases. Folke Bengtsson, the convicted killer from the first novel of the series (Roseanna), has been recently released. Since that murder shared many characteristics with Beck's present case, Beck comes under pressure to arrest Bengtsson. But Beck has begun to doubt that Bengtsson was guilty of any murder at all.

Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, wife and husband team, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries, virtually creating the modern police procedural. In addition to the many short stories and novels he wrote, Mr. Wahloo, who died in 1975, wrote numerous radio and television plays and was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines. Maj Sjowall is also a journalist and poet. She lives in Sweden.

Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, wife and husband team, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries, virtually creating the modern police procedural. In addition to the many short stories and novels he wrote, Mr. Wahloo, who died in 1975, wrote numerous radio and television plays and was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines. Maj Sjowall is also a journalist and poet. She lives in Sweden.

Thomas Teal has translated many works into English, beginning in the 1970s with The Summer Book and Sun City and more recently The True Deceiver and Fair Play. He also cotranslated Tove Jansson's short stories in The Woman Who Borrowed Memories. He lives in Massachusetts.

Tom Weiner, a dialogue director and voice artist best known for his roles in video games and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Transformers, is the winner of eight Earphones Awards and Audie Award finalist. He is a former member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.