Stieg Larsson - the follow up

After becoming very annoyed with Marilyn Robinson’s characters (see previous blog),  reading the second volume in Stieg Larsson’s  Millenium Trilogy came as a huge relief – these characters are in the here and now, they are punk, modern, completely versed in computer technology and hacking, and they have done away with old-fashioned detective methods.  Yes, I’m talking about The Girl who Played with Fire.  It is nailbitingly good, and even though I probably would be quite taken aback by a real life Liesbeth Salander (or she by me, more likely), in the book you take to her.  You cannot but help be on her side, she is real, feisty, a fighter who will not let go, and does not let go until nearly dead she nevertheless manages to pay-back all the wrongs done to her and others, in particular her mother and best friend Mimi.  She is a female hacker, who outhacks the best and gets hold of whatever information she needs in order to fight her cause.  The plot is just too good to give away, the writing is superb and the story, this second one, just absolutely believable. 

Vanessa Thorpe in today’s Observer writes:

‘The novels have all the nostalgic, seedy components of Hollywood film noir: chainsmoking sleuths, underworld contacts, nedless cups of coffee and a smattering of casual sex.’  Absolutely.

I cannot wait  for the third volume  (The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – out in October) – and it is just incredibly sad that the author is dead: too many cigarettes, coffee and bad living basically – he died, just 50,  of a heart attack after having to climb 7  flights of stairs because the lift had broken down.

Great book.  Needless to say, I find it very hard now to find anything else to my liking. ..