Murder on the Thirty-First Floor

Oct 18, 2024 10:36 AM

Author:Per Wahlöö

'The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction' Jo Nesbo

In an unnamed country, in an unnamed year sometime in the future, Chief Inspector Jensen of the Sixteenth Division is called in after the publishers controlling the entire country's newspapers and magazines receive a threat to blow up their building, in retaliation for a murder they are accused of committing. The building is evacuated, but the bomb fails to explode and Jensen is given seven days in which to track down the letter writer.

Jensen has never had a case he could not solve before, but as his investigation into the identity of the letter writer begins it soon becomes clear that the directors of the publishers have their own secrets, not least the identity of the 'Special Department' on the thirty first floor; the only department not permitted to be evacuated after the bomb threat.

Author of the Martin Beck series.

Reviews

Something quite special and fascinating: a use of the detective form to present a brooding and biting forecast of the future - or of a possible future

—— New York Times Book Review

The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

—— Jo Nesbo

[Sarah Death's translation] seems to catch the bleakness perfectly... Wahlöö's solo work deserves to be considered in the same context as Zamyatin, Capek, Orwell, or Durrenmatt...high praise indeed.

—— Michael Carlson , Irresistible Targets

[His novels] are economical and move with great pace... [They] have been restored to the canon of European crime fiction in English. Don't miss

—— Bob Cornwell , Crime Time

Wahlöö would prompt many writers to use crime fiction as a way of holding a mirror to social evils. Here the investigation is tense, the murder shocking, but at heart the crime is against journalism and intellectual freedom

—— Public Sphere

The Beck books were greatly admired, but Wahloo's two novels featuring Chief Inspector Jensen are more intellectually intriguing

—— Independent on Sunday

A beautiful and haunting book...A charming and deeply imaginative novel

—— Aesthetica

Lyrical in his descriptions on the land of the midnight sun

—— Clare Colvin , Daily Mail

Burnside's prose has been frequently praised for its clarity, poetic sonority and fine cadences. It is certainly so here ... A Summer of Drowning marries philosophical meditation with the gooseflesh verve of a thriller

—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on Sunday

Burnside is an accomplished and careful writer. And this is a beautiful book, compelling and strange

—— Margaret Reynolds , The Times

Unsettling, hauntingly memorable tale

—— Sunday Times

Written with deceptive elegance, riddled with gaps and non sequiturs and a clever travesty of several genres, this is a disturbing, provocative book'

—— Guardian

[A Summer of Drowning] brings an eerie glow to the colours and sounds, flora and foodstuffs of the far north

—— Justine Jordan , Guardian

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