The man who went up in smoke - Maj Sjwall

The masterful second novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the internationally
renowned crime writing duo, Maj Sjwall and Per Wahl, finds Beck searching Budapest for a
well-known Swedish journalist who has disappeared without a trace. With an introduction by Val McDermid: "So many of the elements that have become integral...in the police procedural subgenre started life in these ten novels....Their plots are second to none."

Inspector Martin
Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad has his summer vacation abruptly terminated
when the top brass at the foreign office pack him off to Budapest to search for Alf
Matsson, a well-known Swedish journalist who has vanished. Beck investigates viperous
Eastern European underworld figures and--at the risk of his life--stumbles upon the
international racket in which Matsson was involved. With the coolly efficient local
police on his side and a predatory nymphet on his tail, Beck pursues a case whose
international implications grow with each new clue.