Bring on the girl who played with fire!

AS technology advances and via the internet we enter people’s lives without leaving our homes so too are we distanced from knowing our neighbors and seeking what lurks behind the darkened windows of the quiet guy down the street. In "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo" Stieg Larsson shows us that our closest neighbors may not be the quiet types we thought, the internet really is an information super highway and occasionally the pretty young female is not merely a victim.

Mikael Blomkvist has been convicted of libel and his magazine Millennium is struggling to stay afloat. Lisbeth Salander, a young Private Investigator, is endeavoring to keep her temper in check and stay out of harms way; a constant refrain to herself ‘analyse consequences’ speaking volumes. Henrik Vanger an aging industrial tycoon, whom the story centres around, obsesses over the 37 year old mystery of his missing niece. Some imaginative investigating by Salander and a couple of burnt corpses later Blomkvist shed’s some light on the case of the missing Vanger girl but, he still needs to clear his name and Salander may have a few tricks up her sleeve, continuing the tale of thrills and intrigues.

Larsson’s first foray into crime writing is reminiscent of another much older thriller, "The Collector" by John Fowles and perhaps will incite a similar cult audience. The main stage for capture and torture presented in both novels is equally disturbing; the average country neighborhood is not as average as one might suppose; the victims at the mercy of a run of the mill, respectable, middle aged captor. However where Fowlers unnerving story abruptly ends, leaving only your imagination to run wild, Larsson comes up trumps with the titillation of two more installments.

Skillfully addressing many modern day issues Larsson’s minor characters add to the thrill of the plot. Salander’s tormenting guardian asking her "so you don’t like anal sex?’ before grabbing her by the hair and stuffing her knickers in her mouth" one graphic example of the brutally dealt with issue of violence against women. Introducing the idea that women are not always defenseless Salander later stands her ground repeating the guardian’s earlier sentiment "stop whimpering, if you complain I will have to punish you."

Jumping from one character to the next several questions are raised and left unanswered, adding to the mystery and often feeling like a glitch in the plot, but perhaps it is the enticement needed to pursue these characters into the next installment of this provocative trilogy.

Finishing the novel became the focus of my week, the griping story keeping my eyes firmly fixed to its pages. Living up to its promise, I was left wanting more. Larsson weaved many characters and details into 500 odd pages without any real dull moments and has achieved a great read that will surely secure a worthy following. Bring on January 2009 and the release of the next English installment "The Girl who Played with Fire."

I can't wait!

There aren't enough adjectives to describe this book. I feel quite bereft now that I have finished it.

Please rush the next two books into english a.s.p. I can't wait!!!

Very sad about Stieg ...

- John Hepplewhite, 30 January 2008

The Grand Larsson

‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is a huge 500 page opus, multi-layered, multi-character tale by a writer of some considerable power. Full of social conscience and compassion, with considerable insight into the nature of moral corruption, it just knocked me out. This book took over my life this weekend, as when I was away from the narrative I became grumpy and desperate to return to the story, such is the power of this work.

I read it in two sittings, with the final stint a five hour marathon of arm-strain and strong coffee that took me into the very early hours of the morning. It was 4am when my eyes finally surrendered despite my mind being still being locked into this tremendously atmospheric crime novel When I put the book down I was unable to sleep as my head was filled with the high-definition world that Larsson had crafted, and Reg Keeland translated from the Swedish language. The book drained me emotionally but also filled me with emotion.

I consider this novel to feature as one of the greatest crime-fiction novels I have ever read. Even if the English translation is not released until 10th January 2008, I think this could be the crime-fiction novel of 2008. No mean boast considering that this is the first book I have read that has a 2008 release date.

The most interesting aspects of this novel are the vast array of characters that Larsson populates the story with, as well as unfamiliar landscape which captivates the reader as the tale unravels to an unexpected and chilling solution. The two main characters that bring this tale to life are the disgraced journalist and publisher Mikael Blomkvist and his partner, the enigmatic and deeply troubled Lisbeth Salander. I feel that these two characters will soon join the pantheon of greatest crime-fiction characters that populate the genre at its apex. It is obvious that Larsson is very well read in the genre as his investigator Blomkvist reads Sue Grafton, Val McDermid and Elizabeth George while the novel follows and mixes aspects of the sub-genres. We have a splash of Courtroom Drama at the opening when Blomkvist loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom which has serious repercussions for the Magazine Millennium’s future [where Blomkvist acts as publisher]. Then we have the Private Eye strand which comes in the shape of the fourty year-old case of missing teenager Harriet Vanger from an isolated island on a desolate part of Sweden.

Mikael Blomkvist is hired by wealthy 82-year old Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of the Vander Corporation to uncover what happened to the teenage Harriet who vanished four decades ago under mysterious circumstances at a family reunion. Then we have the blending of a locked-room mystery, as the island on that fateful day was cut-off due to a road-tanker crash on the only bridge that connects the inhabitants to the mainland. Henrik Vanger believes that Harriet [his brother’s grand-daughter] was murdered by one of his family members, as the island was cut-off from the mainland when Harriet vanished. As Blomkvist is in disgrace due to losing his libel defense; he decides to take the Vanager case as the old man offers him not only to help the financially strapped Millennium Magazine, but also the promise to give Blomkvist information to prove Wennerstrom is corrupt. And so begins this tortured tale of family secrets, evil and compassion that takes the protagonists from a desolate Swedish island during a frigid winter, to London and then to Australia. Soon both Blomkvist and Salander find themselves both hunter and hunted and it will take all of their combined skills to untangle themselves from the evil that surrounds the course of events that shaped the Vanger clan. We also get a techno-thriller element with Salander’s skills and contacts in the computer hacking community, and finally what would a crime novel be without serial killing and horrific torture? Despite all these conventions, Larsson makes them fresh in a blend that is as mesmerizing as it is insightful into human motivations.

I strongly suggest that you investigate the world of Stieg Larsson – as his work sits right at the top of the genre.

- Ali Karim, Assistant Editor - Shots Magazine, 18 December 2007