After spending the last few years wearing out my eyes with either policy papers, correspondence or uni books I have finally had the chance to read a work of fiction again, purely for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, and without the need to write a review of its contents for any official purposes. But, old habits are hard to break and so I’m about to write about this book anyway, but this time purely for entertainment and enjoyment purposes.

Swedish writer Stieg Larsson was not fortunate enough to have witnessed the success of his Millennium trilogy, having passed away suddenly in November 2004.  The first of the trilogy, later given the English title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published in Sweden in 2005 but did not make an English translation until 2008. Now, in 2009 millions of copies of all three novels have been sold worldwide, and there are rumours of a Hollywood production, while a Swedish language film has already been released in the Nordic countries earlier this year.

From the original Swedish the title of the first book translates to Men Who Hate Women rather than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but while the Swedish title makes more sense – each part of the story opens with a statistic on violent acts undertaken by men against women -  I can honestly say that it would have been unlikely for me to have picked up a novel with any such title.

The girl with the dragon tattoo is Lisbeth Salander, a socially retarded victim of society and serially abused young woman with a penchant for all things hacker and dark. Although initially required to investigate him, she is teamed with journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who I can’t help but suspect is at least in some way based on Larsson himself, who has been hired by billionaire ex-industrial tycoon Henrik Vanger under the pretence of writing the Vanger family biography but who is really commissioned to solve the forty-year-old cold case of the disappearance, and potential murder, of Vanger’s great-niece, Harret. Larsson utilises the locked room mystery as the vehicle for his story, although his locked room is an island with no way in and no way out on the day the alleged crime was committed. Most of the clues are right under the noses of Vander and his family, it just takes a new set of eyes to truly see what the  forty year old evidence presents.

The story is compelling as Larsson details each character in isolation for a time before revealing the connections between them and bringing them together to solve the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance. The development of his characters and the detailing of their lives is believable and engaging. His interruption of one character’s story with the parallel undertakings of another is a little disruptive but none the less leads you to read on in the hopes of getting back to the other character’s story. This tool is useful in sending the reader back and forth between the characters and in not allowing the story to get too bogged down in following a linear storyline. Larsson’s characters are written with a depth and recognition that leads me to believe they are based, if not entirely than in part, on characters within his own life. As I said before, I have little doubt that the author’s experiences in the journalistic arena have influenced his writing of Blomkvist, similarly the other magazine staff. So too, Larsson’s real life experiences with fascism, right-wing extremism and the anti-violence movement are knowingly reflected elsewhere within the novel.

Be warned though, there are a number of truly disturbing episodes of sexual violence detailed within this book, however, they are handled in a relatively skillful manner. Although Larsson uses detailed description to set the scene elsewhere in his story his coverage of these particular incidents is not excessively graphic, providing enough emotional investment to empathise with characters involved, but not so much that it is dwelled upon.

Book two in the series is The Girl Who Played With Fire…I’ll get onto that shortly.