Wahlöö, Per

New York. 1968. Pantheon Books. 1st American Edition. Remainder Stamp On Slightly Wrinkled Front Free Endpaper, Otherwise Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket . Translated from the Swedish by Joan Tate. 276 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Summit Studios. keywords: Mystery Translated Sweden Scandinavia . FROM THE PUBLISHER - A small Spanish port and its neighboring mountain village provide the setting for this compelling novel of suspense and brutality, which vividly conveys the charged and repressive atmosphere of Spain in the 1960s and the attempts of men to come to grips with it. As the story opens, Willi Mohr, a former German soldier and uninspired painter who has drifted listlessly to the region, is arrested by the police and subjected to a lengthy and perplexing interrogation. Unwillingly, he is drawn back through the events of the past fourteen months, the mysterious deaths of the Norwegian couple he shared a house with and his tireless attempts to discover how they died. As Sergeant Tornilla's questions become more insistent, Willi Mohr realizes that his own secret activities have implicated him in a dangerous political situation. Exhausted, at the end of his money, worn down by the police, he reaches a decision that finally moves him to positive action and a profound personal release. Readers of Per Wahlöö's previous novel, THE THIRTY-FIRST FLOOR, will already know of the writer's superb craftsmanship and his ability to make the problems of life in the modern world seem of pressing importance. It is this sense of immediacy with his characters and their surroundings which provides the special impact of A NECESSARY ACTION. A book of high drama and emotional complexity, it will be savored long after the reader has reluctantly turned the final page. inventory #14414