Just Something About The Girl

Did you know that in Sweden there is a statute of limitations on murder? I didn't, and time may be running out. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (originally Män som hatar kvinnor), by Stieg Larsson, is unlike anything you've ever read. In part, it is a classic locked-room murder mystery worthy of Agatha Christie. Turn a page, and you have a multi-generational dysfunctional family with as many dark secrets as in any V.C. Andrews yarn. And still again Larsson finds room to talk conversationally about international business corruption, socialist society, and investigative journalism as though they were the next door neighbor's scandalous gossip. Throw in a dash of sordid Nazi history and a calculating serial killer, and you've got one of the most original thrillers you've ever read. This is a must read, both for newcomers and those jaded by the genre. To put it frankly, it was one of the two best books I read in 2009 (the other being The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first volume in a trilogy (which he called the Millenium Trilogy) written by this recently deceased Swedish author. All three have become runaway bestsellers in Europe, and the first two installments are available in the Unites States (though the titles were changed for an English-speaking audience). The third and final installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is due out in May, though it is available through sellers in the UK (but you should support your local independent bookstore).

Naturally, and right on schedule, the film adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is soon to be out in theatres in the US. There are several trailers online now, some of which are in Swedish. I have added the official US trailer below. It, blessedly, does not give anything away which is fortunate. There are lots of delicious plot twists and character developments in this one, and the trailer does a good job of enticing without giving anything away.

Essentially, the opening volume of this trilogy introduces one of the most original, intelligent, and fresh female voices I've read in...well, probably ever. Her name is Lisbeth Salander, and she is somewhere between heroine and anti-heroine. This is no Jane Austen, that is for sure.

The plot weaves its way between Salander and a man who at first appears to be the main character, Mikael Blomkvist. Blomkvist is a magazine editor who is perched on the edge of ruin for running an editorial against a powerful Swedish industrialist who sues him for libel. Salander is a troubled, probably autistic, punk girl who is a talented hacker and researcher who works for a firm specializing in security and private investigations.

The two eventually cross paths thanks to an aging Henrik Vanger, retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation. Vanger has been mourning the disapperance/murder of his then sixteen-year-old neice Harriet some forty years previously. Feeling he has fewer days before him than behind him, and unable to sleuth the case himself after forty years of research and limitless funding, he draws Blomkvist with an appealing offer. Come to the island he and his extended family reside upon (where his neice disappeared), and solve the cold case of her murder...and in return he will give Blomkvist the evidence he needs to destroy the corrupt Swedish industrialist who nearly ruined him.

But the case is indeed cold. Forty years prior, on a day when the family had gathered on the island, an oil tanker crashed on the only bridge connecting Hedeby Island to the mainland. During those few hours when the island was cut off from everything, while the family members fought the fire and tried to free the driver, Harriet went missing. The island was searched many times, the boats were accounted for and divers dispatched, but she was never found. Vangar is convinced one of the members of his odd, deeply secretive family has killed the one family member he treasured above all, and hidden her broken body somewhere. And he's convinced the killer is a relative still living with him on the island.

As the trailer asks, how close can you get to the truth before you become the target?