Naturally, at one hour 15 minutes, the story has been shortened for radio, and has been dramatised by Jennifer Howarth. Beck is voiced by Steve Mackintosh, and his cohort Lennert by Neil Pearson. Roseanna opens with the discovery of a young woman’s body floating in a canal. The victim has been raped and murdered, but with no means of identifying her, the case quickly hits a brick wall. It’s not until several months later that Beck and his team finally get a break when they’re contacted by Interpol and our victim is finally named. She’s Roseanna McGraw, an American tourist who was travelling by boat down to southern Sweden at the time of her death. Even with this information, it’s another six months before Beck and his team finally solve the case.
Details of the nine further episodes aren’t on the BBC site as yet, but as there were 10 Beck novels it seems likely they’ll follow the original running order and The Man Who Went Up in Smoke will be next.
For more details and to hear a clip, click here. The Martin Beck Murders is running alongside Foreign Bodies: An Investigation into European Detectives which is 15 episodes long and runs every Tuesday at 1:45pm, with Mark Lawson. Episode two runs today focusing on Inspector Barlach.