Cop Killer

The Martin Beck books are widely acknowledged as some of the most influential detective novels ever written. Written by Swedish husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö between 1965-1975, the ten-book series set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandanavian crime fiction.Long before Kurt Wallander or Harry Hole, Beck was the original flawed policeman, working with a motley collection of colleagues to uncover the cruelty and injustice lurking beneath the surface of Sweden's seemingly liberal, democratic society.In Cop Killer, adapted from the ninth book in the series, a woman is brutally murdered and left buried in a swamp. On a quiet suburban street a midnight shootout takes place between three cops and two teenage boys... Detective Inspector Martin Beck and his partner Lennart Kollberg are called in on both cases. In the unfamiliar smalltown setting, they encounter figures from their earlier cases.This adaptation by Jennifer Howarth was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 27 July 2013.