THE TERRORISTS

An outstanding envoi to Per Wahloo and perhaps the last case for Martin Beck—no longer as somber with his new woman to soften the calcification of age and his profession. The three-way story meshes imperceptibly as an American senator's assassination has to be prevented; as a young girl with a baby—she's eminently sympathetic—is released on one charge, only—in desperation—to accomplish what professional terrorists couldn't; and finally a middle-aged porn peddler/corrupter is murdered in the bathtub of the woman he visits on the side. Throughout, the extended realism is undershot with human, social, and political concerns beyond the scope of a gunsight.