One of the aims in the Martin Beck series is to present a different element of police homicide work in each of the novels. For example, in Rosanna the Swedish Homicide Squad must deal with mindless and almost motiveless murder by a deranged killer. In The Man on the Balcony (1967), they confront child sexual abuse; in The Fire Engine that Disappeared (1969) increasing drug traffic in the welfare state; and in The Abominable Man (1971) a heavily armed sniper on an apparently impregnable perch. In The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (1966) Martin Beck is called upon to work outside his usual jurisdiction to solve a possible crime with potential political implications in Eastern Europe, and The Locked Room (1972) converts the traditional "locked room mystery" into a novel of crime in the city.

Several of the novels call upon Beck and his colleagues to solve crimes new to...