Murder on the Thirty-First Floor

A chilling dystopian classic crime story from the godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction.

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

The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

[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.

[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

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

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

Born in 1926, Per Wahlöö was a Swedish writer and journalist who, alongside his own novels, collaborated with his wife, Maj Sjöwall, on the bestselling Martin Beck crime series which are credited as inspiring writers as varied as Agatha Christie, Henning Mankell and Jonathan Franzen. In 1971 the fourth novel in the series, The Laughing Policeman, won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Per Wahlöö died in 1975.

'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.

Per Wahlöö

Sarah Death

A vigorous and powerful mind...there is no doubt about the originality of his talent

[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

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

The premise is intriguing... The themes are topical

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

'The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction' Jo Nesbo 
 
Chief Inspector Jensen is a policeman in an unnamed European country where the government has criminalised being drunk, even in private at home, and where the city centres have been demolished to devote more space to gleaming new roads. 
 
Recovering in a hospital room abroad after a liver transplant, Jensen receives a note instructing him to return home immediately, but when he reaches the airport he discovers that all flights home have been cancelled and all communication from within his homeland has ceased. One of the last messages sent requested urgent medical help from abroad and when Jensen is piloted across the border it soon becomes clear that an epidemic has ravaged the country.

Per Wahlöö

Praise for The Steel Spring

The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

A vigorous and powerful mind...there is no doubt about the originality of his talent

[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

The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

A vigorous and powerful mind...there is no doubt about the originality of his talent

[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

The godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

A vigorous and powerful mind...there is no doubt about the originality of his talent

[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

Books by Per Wahlöö

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