THE FIRE ENGINE THAT DISAPPEARED

A little less of Martin Beck, a little more of his associates in another nonpareil procedural novel which pursues with thin-and-tight-lipped realism the aftermath of an explosion in a Stockholm apartment house. Among the initial victims is Maim, who was active in a stolen car and drug traffic but was dead before the fire broke out, and before it's finally put out, there are further fatalities. Once again the reader is handcuffed to the page by the chronometer precision and timing.