The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

So I finally read it.

There's always a certain amount of trepidation when it comes to reading a book that's become as phenomenal a bestseller as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Will I agree with the masses... or will some grudging literary snobbishness have me turning my nose up as quickly as I turn the pages? (Yeah, like anyone who reads as many comics and as much genre fiction as I do can be a literary snob... and yet...)

To be honest, I struggled with the first few chapters of Stieg Larsson's debut. I've seen the phrase 'forensic (attention to) detail' bandied about enough in regard to this author that I might as well steal it. The first hundred or so pages of ...Dragon Tattoo delves into a complex back story that introduces the two central characters and provides far more information about financial journalism and Swedish libel laws than I ever thought I'd need. All this before the central plot is even hinted at.

But then, that plot does arrive. And it's a stormer. Aging industrialist Henrik Vanger hires journalist Mikael Blomkvist to investigate the unsolved disappearance of his niece Harriet in 1966. As Blomkvist soon discovers, this is something of a locked room mystery - but one in which the room is actually an island, sealed off from the mainland on the day Harriet disappeared by a road accident on the only bridge.

I read a good bit of detective fiction, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has to be one of the most gripping investigative yarns I've read in a long time. So much so that when the inevitable scenes of dramatic peril occur - a scary showdown with a serial killer - they're nowhere near as intense as the scenes of Blomkvist digging around in old journals and piecing together clues from grainy photographs. Maybe that stuff just appeals to my inner nerd.

The thriller elements, though necessary, are the weakest thing here. Larsson seems to recognise this though, climaxing the Thomas Harris stuff about two thirds of the way into the story, with far more interesting revelations to follow. Then... just when you think the author's wrapped everything up neatly, we return to the libel plot from the opening section, now much more effective and immediate after all we've been through with Blomkvist, leading to a tasty conclusion... with a nasty sting in its tail for the eponymous heroine.

Which brings us to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo herself. Lisbeth Salander. A fascinating, multi-layered anti-heroine with a nice line in vigilante vengeance. There's some argument over whether she's a feminist icon or some bizarre, wish-fulfilment fantasy trapped within a sneakily misogynist narrative. The fact that the novel's original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women fuels both sides of that debate. But I can't see Larsson as a sinister sexist myself. He writes strong female characters throughout, and the fact that he chooses a villain who murders women in horrible ways hardly sets him apart. Couple that with the fact that he counts among his influences Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers and Sara Paretsky... well, what do I know?

In the end, it all comes down to the story, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo delivers. It's exciting, it's fascinating, with powerful characters and a vivid setting - and all that forensic detail... it pays off. I'm pacing myself before I read the sequel, but ideally - I want it now!