Roseanna by Sjöwall and Wahlöö

Sjöwall and Wahlöö

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, a common-law wife and husband team of detective writers from Sweden. Together they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels about the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the...

 is the first novel in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck

Martin Beck

Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective who is the main character in a series of ten novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime...

 and his team.

Plot summary

A young woman is found dead in a canal, molested and murdered. The case is almost instantly cold: nobody can identify her and where and by whom she was killed. Then a stroke of luck: through Interpol

Interpol

Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

her identity is ascertained—Roseanna McGraw, an American tourist who was taking a boat trip in southern Sweden. A meticulous investigation determines that she was murdered aboard the boat and proceeds to determine if a fellow passenger was responsible.

Characters and their development

Martin Beck, Lennart Kollberg and Frederik Melander are introduced. Later in the novel Åke Stenström makes an appearance in one of his trademark pursuits.

Lesser characters who will make appearances in later novels are detective Ahlberg of the Motala police force, and detective Sonja Hansson of the Stockholm police force. The reader is also introduced to Beck's wife, son and daughter.