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Murder on the Thirty-First Floor. by Per Wahloo Paperback – International Edition, January 1, 2011

by Per Wahlöö (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 116 ratings
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A chilling dystopian classic crime story from the godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction

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.
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 2
    Inspector Jensen
  2. Print length
    224 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Vintage Books
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2011
  6. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.55 x 7.8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0099554763
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0099554769
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Books; F First Edition (January 1, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099554763
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099554769
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.55 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 116 ratings

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Per Wahlöö

Per Wahlöö

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Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
116 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

orvuus
5.0 out of 5 stars Rehearsal for Martin Beck
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2013
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Like many I am sure, I read the entire "Martin Beck" series beginning with Roseanna and became fascinating by the individual novels as well as the ongoing lives of the detectives. That was set in the contemporary setting, whereas this is set in a time unspecified, but one in which the detective is a cog in a dystopian society. Jensen, like Martin Beck, seems to be suffering from some ongoing abdominal ailment, but unlike Beck he seems not at all compassionate or even human. Nonetheless he retains a shrewd stance in his investigations, and I found myself as engrossed in this as the Beck novels. Highly recommended for fans of Wahloo and Sjowall. Very enjoyable read.
4 people found this helpful
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MB
4.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary well written! Really feels that you are living ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2015
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Extraordinary well written! Really feels that you are living in a brave new world, but grey, cold, with people under a rose-like ideological dictatorship. I was rather surprised by the development of the story and not very sure that I wanted to continue reading it. There was no crime committed, no blood, no forensics, no sex motivations, and a detective likewise grey and uncommunicative as the other characters, in spite of that, I read it in no time. Really extraordinary.
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Trevor Kettlewell
3.0 out of 5 stars Unengaging narration of bland urban dystopia within crime framework
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2017
I was going to rate this higher as insightful political satire – somehow I presumed it was written in the 30s or something. But when I found it was actually published in 1964, the Orwellian resonances of state control, and the Huxleyan ones of a populace kept docile by bland media distractions, felt very derivative, and less effectively portrayed than either of the originals. And what is it with Swedes and detached, obsessively detailed narration?

It was novel to have the crime framework, although the central detective gives us nothing much to enjoy. He’s not particularly likeable, treats his subordinates rudely, has no Sherlock tricks or Marlowe wit. His method seems to be to find anyone related to the case, and then to listen as they talk at length – sometimes without much explanation: it’s not that they’re necessarily garrulous, or that there’s anything in for them to pour out their heart (quite the opposite with the awareness of police having the power to take you away on very little provocation).

It was different and diverting for its short length, but I grabbed it because I’d had ‘The Laughing Policeman’ recommended to me, but this was the only book of his in the library. I think I’ll narrow my search to the Martin Beck stories.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A tense page-turner that is also an intellectual thriller
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2006
Per Wahloo is not the first writer to record the stifling effect of government bureaucracy. But in the background of this police procedural he has fashioned a devastating critique of the modern state. This may not be the first anti-utopian novel, but it is among the best.

The time is the near future. The major problems that have plagued the democracies -- housing, unemployment, social inequality and so in -- have been solved, partly it seems by having been declared solved. Like Big Brother in "1984" (and some recent inhabitants of the White House), the rulers of this corporate paradise are deeply offended by the merest expression of dissent.

Chief Inspector Jensen must stop whoever is threatening to bomb the company that controls the nation's magazines and newspapers. According to someone Jensen consults at the Ministry of Communications, their publications "have proved their ability to satisfy in a moderate way all legitimate tastes." Although the press once tended to inspire anxiety and unhappiness, now it can be relied on to give readers reassurance and peace of mind. The media have, in short, "the ability to be comprehensible and uncomplicated, adapting to the tastes of modern man."

Jensen has never failed to solve a case. He is a cop's cop, tireless, incorruptible, puritanical, a stickler for the rules. As he pursues his investigation, he is continually turning in people for petty infractions, especially private drunkenness. His thoroughness begins to unsettle the company's executives. They become more concerned with preserving the secret of the "thirty-first floor" than with discovering who is threatening the company. If he can unlock the door to the thirty-first floor, the chief inspector will find his culprit. He will also find the key to the mysterious control exercised by the society over its writers and intellectuals.

With his wife, the poet Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo was responsible for the Martin Beck novels, the detective series that was also an acute critique of Swedish society. In "Murder on the Thirty-First Floor," by exaggerating certain contemporary trends and phenomena only slightly (the dependence on the automobile and the mindlessness of popular culture), he has created a tense page-turner that is also an intellectual thriller.
9 people found this helpful
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Susie
2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the MARTIN BECK series
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2008
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I'm a big fan of the Martin Beck series by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. Murder on the Thirty-first Floor by Per Wahloo doesn't pack a punch like the books they've written together. Sorry I can't offer a more detailed review but I read this book some time ago and just got the request to review it today.
I loved all the Martin Beck books, couldn't put any one of them down until I finished reading them.
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Seldom
4.0 out of 5 stars The original Swedish mystery writer.
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2013
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Good to see these early works coming back into print. Read Martin Beck back in the '70s. This is different, and more socially critical like Orwell. Not as much police procedure.
2 people found this helpful
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David Evan Glasser
2.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious and a bit tedious
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2014
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I bought this book expecting it to be in keeping with the rest of the Sjowall/ ;Wahloo series, which I have greatly enjoyed over the years. To my great disappointment I found the plot tedious, the charcters artificial and the protagonist, inspectorvJensen, boring and unconvincing. Unless this author works together with his collaborator, Ms Sjowall, another of his novels are not worth getting.

David Evan Glasser
Eski Datca, Turkey
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Tom Triumph
4.0 out of 5 stars Okay Speculative Fiction, but No Martin Beck
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2015
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Love the Beck series. Interesting, but a bit simple. More a morality tail than a real detective story.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

tonywhipp
5.0 out of 5 stars Hugely different and thrilling as ever
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2015
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I am a big fan of his Martin Beck books and have to say, from the start, that this really couldn't be more different. It is far more in the realms of a Kafka-esque dystopia - though, naturally, with crime at its heart. Twists and turns along the way kept me engaged throughout. And the end-twist took me by surprise. A great read from start to end - albeit not in the Martin Beck vein!
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Paulinderwick
4.0 out of 5 stars Not what it seems on so many levels...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2015
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Having read the Martin Beck series I was expecting more of the same, or at least similar. Whilst there are similarities between Beck and Jensen as you read the book the divergences become clearer, Not wishing to give away any plot spoilers Jensen lives in what is, it becomes clear, a fictional country (or we must hope it is) with distant echoes of Brave New World and 1984. I enjoyed the Beck series more, I must confess, it was rooted in a reality which this lacks (albeit an historical one) and Beck was mortal and a lot more human than Jensen. Jensen is very much the agent in charge of the action, whereas the Beck series, like Ed McBain's 87th precinct, had the variety of other characters who often play a more significant role. Although the Beck series is often referred to as an original series in the annals of Scandi-crime (sorry) the first book was published 9 years after the first 87th Preceinct novel which is clearly the precurser of that type of crime fiction. This book certainly does not follow in that mould, it is one of a pair featuring the same dystopian society and the same lead character. Worth reading if you are a committed fan of crime fiction in all of it's forms, it may disappoint if you just want a 'good read'.
5 people found this helpful
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David J Marriott
3.0 out of 5 stars I didn't both of the books they were not me.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2023
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I just couldn't get into the book.Thanks for your prompt service.
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Hermione Sacks
5.0 out of 5 stars Clever crime solving
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2014
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Another great crime novel, well written, interesting chracters and extremly dry writing, showing the dedication needed to solve a crime even more than the drama .
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Simon Clarke
4.0 out of 5 stars Murder on the thirty-first floor---Per Wahloo
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2011
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Per Wahloo,together with his wife,Maj Sjowell,wrote the
ten crime novels in the Martin Beck series.This novel is
the first in a series of two,and was first published in
1964,but is now re-issued in an excellent new English
translation by Sarah Death.
It is not traditional crime fiction,it is more a dystopian
novel set in an unknown Northern European country,some time
in the future,and aside from the main protagonist,Chief
Inspector Jensen,no one else in the story is given a name.
The inhabitants of this country are ruthlessly conditioned,
and anxiety is managed by the state.
The emotionless Jensen,who has never failed to solve a
crime ,is given 7 days to investigate a crime involving an
anonymous bomb threat on the offices of a company that controls
all the country's magazines.
As Jensen struggles to conclude the matter.we are given
evidence of a soulless society. One does not have to agree
with the author's political vision in order to appreciate
his talent and originality.
11 people found this helpful
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