The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Steig Larsson
Published in 2005 by MacLehose Press. Translated from the original Swedish by Reg Keeland
This is part I of a trilogy. It is an unusual, and very readable, detective story, set in Sweden, and featuring a 'punk' heroine as one of the two main characters. Lisbeth Salander is the 'girl with the dragon tattoo', along with a number of other tattoos and body piercings. She is also a computer hacker par excellence - she describes herself as one of the best in Sweden. She is a free lance investigator for a security company and as part of one of her assignments, connects up with the financial journalist Michael Blomkvist. The latter has been recently discredited for libeling an important financier, and is facing short jail term. In the meanwhile he is asked to write the history of the rich industrialist Vanger family. At least, this is the cover story. In reality he is inquiring into the 35 year old disappearance of the young niece of the patriarch. Together Salander and Blomkvist uncover the gruesome details that lead to the events of 1967, and later.
The book has multiple layers. There is the story of the disappearance, underlying that is the story of Blomkvist and his duel with the financier whom he is supposed to have libelled, and underlying even that, and probably connecting the trilogy together is the story of Lisbeth Salander. It is a nice read, though not exactly gripping. Also it does not have the integrity or honesty of, say, Raymond Chandler, to mention another writer of detective fiction.
This is part I of a trilogy. It is an unusual, and very readable, detective story, set in Sweden, and featuring a 'punk' heroine as one of the two main characters. Lisbeth Salander is the 'girl with the dragon tattoo', along with a number of other tattoos and body piercings. She is also a computer hacker par excellence - she describes herself as one of the best in Sweden. She is a free lance investigator for a security company and as part of one of her assignments, connects up with the financial journalist Michael Blomkvist. The latter has been recently discredited for libeling an important financier, and is facing short jail term. In the meanwhile he is asked to write the history of the rich industrialist Vanger family. At least, this is the cover story. In reality he is inquiring into the 35 year old disappearance of the young niece of the patriarch. Together Salander and Blomkvist uncover the gruesome details that lead to the events of 1967, and later.
The book has multiple layers. There is the story of the disappearance, underlying that is the story of Blomkvist and his duel with the financier whom he is supposed to have libelled, and underlying even that, and probably connecting the trilogy together is the story of Lisbeth Salander. It is a nice read, though not exactly gripping. Also it does not have the integrity or honesty of, say, Raymond Chandler, to mention another writer of detective fiction.
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