Reviews 

I am not sure that (if ever) I have read this since 1976 (when it is signed as a Xmas present for P). It is quite hard going, but pretty...

I am not sure if I have ever read this before; although I have seen the TV adaptation many times and the book drags back memories,...

I borrowed, purloined or stole quite a few of my parents’ now unwanted books on a visit to Bristol yesterday. This is not a great book,...

One of Paddy’s cast off’s (like no.300 above). I read too many ‘feminine’ books because they are there available. This was quite good,...

This is a long and difficult book; I did punctuate it with no.290. About a modernist painter in modern day Australia; dedicated to Sydney...

Paddy liked this; I found it hard work. A true story about a man who ‘adopts’ as a pet a tawny owl. The owl’s death at the end was...

Nearly two weeks since I finished no.185. This is very long and I gave up on another book before starting it. It is not very good either;...

Extraordinary. Long and difficult (although ultimately very simple) book, simply about human life. Very un-glorified. The characters are...

Just re-read it; it is a brilliant book, once you can follow the plotting which is alternative chapters, odd numbers set on the island...

Paddy got this from the library; it is written by some bright young thing ex Jesus College, where she used to work. It is very, very...

The last one in the series and pretty good. There is a wonderful lawyer whose name I can't remember who speaks I am sure with the authors...

Same schizophrenia. Main plot good; woman murdered in town inhabited by two different murderers who appear in no.54 and no.55, so both...

8/10 in the series ( I have just bought 9). The locked room is apparently analogous to a chess puzzle; how has someone been shot dead (in...

The 7th and best so far. I like the way they fit different (in this case a very nondescript one) detectives around Martin Beck. A book...

Another excellent book in this excellent series. It is hard to characterise what I enjoy in these books; slightly sardonic humour and...

Pretty good, again. A book about an absent (for most of the book) criminal, the police spend most of the time looking for a murderer who...

Very good, again; I do like these books (obviously). There is quite a gang of policemen, all with their individual quirks, and because...

This one is very Ed McBain police procedural. You get to know a lot of Beck's colleagues a lot better. Child sex murderer loose in...

The 2nd book in the series. Wonderful descriptions of Budapest, when Beck sent over there and very much a spy story while he is there...

The first Martin Beck novel was written by a Swedish communist husband and wife team in the 1960's. Well dramatised on Radio 4 recently,...