The laughing policeman (1972)

Martin Beck's team investigates a shooting on a Stockholm bus, with a colleague among the dead. Sjöwall and Wahlöö make the work collective, fallible and full of apparently unproductive effort. Alan Blair's translation is a useful starting point for readers who want a procedural with a critical view of its own institution. This is the fourth Beck novel, so the team already has a history; the case gives their methods a sharp focus.