Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson, Vintage, 608 pages, paperback, $14.95 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is the first in a trilogy from the recently deceased Stieg Larsson. Mikael Blomkvist, respected financial journalist and co-owner of Millenium Magazine is sued for libel by an investment company owner and loses the verdict. Blomkvist's rescue comes from an established industrial family that requests a semi-authorized family history be written. To begin the research and spend a year to be interrupted by a prison sentence Blomkvist must review 30+ years old police files on the disappearance of a teen aged female family member. Lisbeth Salander, a young adult ward-of-the Swedish state, refuses to submit to authority and has a passion for computing and investigations. Nearly feral in her approach to life, Salander is clever, aggressive, and secretive. If Steig over reaches in any one character it is Salander. Near the end, she pulls off a Mission: Impossible heist that might in the reader's head leave echoes of Bond, James Bond.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo strikes a middle ground in its pacing. The book is not a page turner and is slow in developing characters. At times it seems to be heading into a noir detective genre but then turns away. At other times it seems to be heading to a techno-thriller then takes off in another direction. It is not a dissection of journalism, industrial families, or economic gangsterism. But all of these are bundled together in a story that at times has nearly over-the-top violence. It is the characters that keeps the plot moving forward. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is reminiscent of William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive and Neuromancer and John Grisham's The Firm and The Pelican Brief. Yes, not two authors generally associated together until now. Tech-driven, law-driven, character-driven, business-driven, crime-driven The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo glimpses into many human hearts out of which flows the issues of life. CWL is looking forward to The Girl Who Played with Fire which is now in print and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest which will be released in May 2010.
Image Source: Murdock Books
