The Fire Engine That Disappeared

The Fire Engine That Disappeared (Brandbilen som försvann) is a mystery novel by Swedish writers Sjöwall and Wahlöö, published in 1969. It is the fifth book in the Martin Beck detective series.

The Fire Engine That Disappeared

First edition (Swedish)
Author	Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Original title	Brandbilen som försvann
Translator	Joan Tate
Country	Sweden
Language	Swedish
Series	Martin Beck series
Publisher	Norstedts Förlag (Sweden) Pantheon Books (US)
Publication date	1969
Published in English	1970
Pages	249
Preceded by	The Laughing Policeman
Followed by	Murder at the Savoy

In the novel a house fire, which kills three people, was about to be written off as the result of a tenant's gas suicide when a forensics officer discovers a firebomb in the rubble that would have certainly killed the tenant had he not killed himself. Beck and his team launch a manhunt for the tenant's partner-in-crime, but are perplexed when the partner-in-crime is found dead at the bottom of the sea.

Plot summary

An apartment in Sundbyberg, the scene of the explosion.

Just as Gunvald Larsson arrives to replace a colleague, the apartment of a drug dealer in Stockholm, the house he is observing suddenly explodes into flames. Larsson tries to break into the house to rescue the residents, while an anonymous person calls the fire brigade from a payphone. The fire brigade arrives too late and some residents are killed.

The investigation finds that the drug dealer under surveillance has committed suicide by gas poisoning and blocked all the openings of his room. Beck still has doubts about this happening: where did the spark for the explosion come from and why did the fire department take so long to arrive? The doubts are justified, as it turns out according to the findings of the Crime Lab: the gas was lit by a hidden incendiary bomb in the mattress of the deceased.

The suspect, who had placed the incendiary, was, as it turns out, a Lebanese professional killer entering the country specifically to kill the drug dealer. He had himself called the firefighters as he wanted to avoid harming bystanders but accidentally due to lack of local knowledge he said the name of the wrong location.

Character development

Beck's daughter Ingrid announces that she will leave home and encourages her father in secret to do the same. Benny Skacke is introduced as the ambitious detective to replace Stenström. Regular police officer Zachrisson is introduced.

Film adaptation

The novel was adopted to film in 1993 with Gösta Ekman as Martin Beck and Rolf Lassgård as Gunvald Larsson.