Per Wahlöö

In the near future where "the combine" controls television and news, a bomb threat brings super cop Jansen to the combine's headquarters. Nothing happens, but his boss gives him four days to solve the hoax. Odd things occur: on day one there's a murder at the combine; vague references to the combine's enemy, Krysmopompas, appear; the nephew of the combine's boss confesses to the bomb threat, although he didn't do it.

The police lieutenant Nyman is murdered in his hospital bed and Martin Beck and his colleagues have another murder to solve. They discover that Nyman was a very brutal and tough policemen who got many complaints about police-brutality. Particularly interesting is Åke Eriksson, whose wife died in police custody because of Nyman.

In San Francisco, one victim in a mass murder is a police detective. His partner and a new partner investigate in the city's seamy side. (imdb)

People on a train get murdered. Who is the murderer? Everybody on the train is a suspect. One of them is the homosexual dope fiend. (imdb)

A dead and unknown woman, is found in a canal. Police inspector Martin Beck becomes involved in the case. After several months the woman is identified. The police reconstruct the woman's last trip on the canal boat "Wilhelm Tham".

May Berg is driving alone one evening, when she almost runs over a man lying in the road. She gets out of the car to see if he's alive. Suddenly he attacks her.