According to the blurb, Sjowall and Wahloo, with their policeman progagonist Martin Beck, created the mold for this type of "police procedural" in the 1980s, and most similar books (for example those of Jo Nesbo) written in the future have used their story-telling methods ever since.
   This means (the blurb continues) that some of the methods used in The Man Who Went Up In Smoke might seem old-fashioned now - but they weren't then. They were trail-blazing when the book was written.
   All probably true. I liked the style of the book, laconic and laced with dry humour. The plot, by today's standards, is a little thin. Certainly I solved what was going on about half way through. But curiously, this didn't detract from the reading experience.
   Overall, I liked it.  Apparently there are another dozen or so of these books (this one is the second); I might very well put the remainder on my upcoming birthday list.