Latest Passion: Stieg Larsson's Millenium series
It's been months since I've written anything but one-liners on Facebook, but I'm breaking the pattern to recommend my latest passion, murder mysteries by the late Swedish writer, Stieg Larsson.
I discovered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a few weeks ago and immediately got hooked on the characters, particularly protagonista Salander, a punk hacker with a photographic memory and a troubled past. She hooks up with investigative journalist Mikeal Blomqvist when he hires her to do research on a missing person case from 1966, and they uncover a series of unsolved brutal sex crimes in the process. But it's not that simple. The book is meaty, with complex subplots involving high finance, fraud, and revenge, too, both public and personal.
Next in the series is The Girl Who Played with Fire. It was checked out at my local library so I actually went out and bought the hardbound. Waiting for it to be returned, or even Amazon to ship, would be too long. (Yes. They are that good.) The book was a bit slower getting started, despite the 1st chapter "hook" that's become an industry standard. But when a double murder of two investigative journalists working with Blomqvist implicated Salander, I was hooked again. And Larsson kept surprising me. Mysteries are plot driven by nature, but it was the characters again that grabbed me. We learn more about Salander's past and her intriguing present, with the introduction of two new minor characters, Salander's lesbian lover and her former boxing partner.
A word of warning: these books are not for the squeamish. there's graphic violence, often of a sexual nature, and sexual subtexts that are... disturbing, to say the least. But Larsson handles these matters with sensitivity and dexterity. The perp is never more interesting than the victim. Larsson's women are fearless, adventurous and strong. And Blomqvist is brave enough to acccept them as they are.
So the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest won't be out in the US until May 25. Thank God I'll be in London on May 18th. (And maybe I know someone who'll be coming in from Europe before then???)
I discovered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a few weeks ago and immediately got hooked on the characters, particularly protagonista Salander, a punk hacker with a photographic memory and a troubled past. She hooks up with investigative journalist Mikeal Blomqvist when he hires her to do research on a missing person case from 1966, and they uncover a series of unsolved brutal sex crimes in the process. But it's not that simple. The book is meaty, with complex subplots involving high finance, fraud, and revenge, too, both public and personal.
Next in the series is The Girl Who Played with Fire. It was checked out at my local library so I actually went out and bought the hardbound. Waiting for it to be returned, or even Amazon to ship, would be too long. (Yes. They are that good.) The book was a bit slower getting started, despite the 1st chapter "hook" that's become an industry standard. But when a double murder of two investigative journalists working with Blomqvist implicated Salander, I was hooked again. And Larsson kept surprising me. Mysteries are plot driven by nature, but it was the characters again that grabbed me. We learn more about Salander's past and her intriguing present, with the introduction of two new minor characters, Salander's lesbian lover and her former boxing partner.
A word of warning: these books are not for the squeamish. there's graphic violence, often of a sexual nature, and sexual subtexts that are... disturbing, to say the least. But Larsson handles these matters with sensitivity and dexterity. The perp is never more interesting than the victim. Larsson's women are fearless, adventurous and strong. And Blomqvist is brave enough to acccept them as they are.
So the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest won't be out in the US until May 25. Thank God I'll be in London on May 18th. (And maybe I know someone who'll be coming in from Europe before then???)
Labels: Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
posted by corvida at 2:08 PM
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