I enjoy reading the occasional thriller/crime novel and with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo being so highly reviewed I thought I would give it a try (especially having watched the BBC series “Wallander” based on novels by another Swedish writer, Henning Mankell).
Many readers will already know that the author, Stieg Larsoon, delivered the manuscripts for the three crime novels forming his Millennium Trilogy (this one is the first) to his publisher and then died suddenly and unexpectedly soon afterwards. This was a sad loss for despite their failings (at least in my opinion) this is a unique set of novels, the second. The Girl Who Played With Fire having now been published in the UK.
The book’s main theme is about the wealthy Vanger family, who over several generations have built up an industrial empire. However, despite their vast wealth, the family are dysfunctional to say the least, and have many skeletons in their cupboards. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is recruited by the elderly Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger who went missing thirty years ago.
In a parallel thread we read of Lisbeth Salander who is a troubled security specialist who spends her time free-lancing on special investigations using her skills in computer hacking and network-busting. Salander’s story runs parallel to Blomkvist for the first 250 pages or so, and it is not easy to see the connection between the two until they eventually meet up and work together on the Vanger case.
Continue reading Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
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