The lightning-paced fifth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo, Maj Sj wall and Per Wahl , finds Beck investigating one of the strangest, most violent, and unforgettable crimes of his career.The incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the buildings eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Becks colleagues hadnt been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe because somehow a regulation fire-truck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what if, anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a 46-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: Martin Beck?About the Author:Maj Sj wall and Per Wahl , her husband and coauthor, wrote ten Martin Beck mysteries. Mr Wahl , who died in 1975, was a reporter for several Swedish newspapers and magazines and wrote numerous radio and television plays, film scripts, short stories, and novels. Maj Sj wall is also a poet.