Murder on the Thirty-First Floor, by Per Wahlöö

"The alarm was raised at exactly 13.02." The first words of Murder on the Thirty-First Floor are delivered in trademark Martin Beck style but from there on the similarities with the brilliant Story of a Crime series that Per Wahlöö would develop with Maj Sjöwall are more in political stance and spare writing than investigative policing.

The central character, Inspector Jensen, is deiberately colourless - "a middle-aged police officer of normal build, with unlined and expressionless face" - whose only distinguishing features are a pain on the right side of his diaphragm and seeming infallibility.

"Is it true what they say, that you've never failed to solve a case?"

"Yes," said Jensen, "that's right."

Inspector Jensen (nearly always thus, rather than simply Jensen), is called to the tallest building in the (unnamed) country.

Officially, the Skyscraper has 30 storeys. It is home to a publishing house with a monopoly on distribution that has squeezed out all competition. It publishes 144 magazines, selling 21,326,453 copies a week, plus 9 million newspapers: "This united front on the part of the press has consolidated the Accord."

The Accord somehow holds together a prosperous country where "people are very well dressed but strangely identical." They are also very miserable, and inclined to drink... rather a dangerous condition in a country where alcohol abuse, even in the home is outlawed.

Every evening, two or three thousand people are arrested, almost all blind drunk. "The burden of police work had reached almost superhuman proportions."

Inspector Jensen is called to the Skyscraper, situated near the Trades Union Palace, in front of the worker's monument.  The mysterious Director has received a note warning  that "In reprisal for the murder committed by you a powerful explosive charge has been placed on the premises."

Jensen makes the hard call to evacuate the building. The bomb threat was false alarm but the economic consequences of even a short shutdown in production demand a politically risky police investigation

Suspicion falls on a list of disgruntled former employees, and the stories they tell during interrogation make up quite a chunk on the novel. Each is as much a monologue on the corruption of the press as clues leading to the resolution of a whodunnit as Wahlöö inexorably drives home the point that raising living standrads means nothing if intellectual life is crushed, part of his critique of the Social Democrat movement that gave Sweden an enviable welfare state but also managed to be soulless.

The Beck novels lament building schemes that replaced historic parts of Stockholm with concrete monstrosities, and to this day millions of Swedes sit in the front of the TV on Christmas Eve to watch Donald Duck; US cartoons were frowned upon in the 70s and this one concession to capitalist frovolity continues to have iconic status.

Here, the lecherous publisher falls for a cleaner, and is caught red-handed as he assaults her. The night guard who finds them is made head of security and the woman is instantly promoted to magazine editor. She has no qualifications for the job (except low cunning) but her lack of sophistication - dumbing down - leads to a best-selling magazine.

Wahlöö and Sjöwall would prompt many writers, from Henning Mankell to Stieg Larsson to use crime fiction as a way of holding a mirror to social evils. Here the technique is stretched very far - the investigation is tense, the murder shocking, but at heart the crime is against journalism and intellectual freedom.

Murder on the Thirty First Floor was translated by Sarah Death; thank you, Sarah. 

• Photos: The iconic Turning Torso was more than 30 years into the future but Möllevångstorget, the working class heart of Malmö was a favourite haunt when Per and Maj lived nearby in the 60s.

Comments

[Maxine]

Defintitely going to read this one! Great review and photos, thanks.

[Philip]

Thanks, Maxine. I hope you enjoy 31st Floor as much as I did. As you will discover, it is quite tricky to review without giving spoilers.

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