Whilst The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo suffers from a horridly simple, almost workman-like writing style and is let down by it’s last hundred pages, it is still hugely enjoyable and effortlessly enthralling. The premise of a recently convicted journalist for the crime of libel being hired to investigate the forty year old disappearance of a wealthy businessman’s niece is packed with enough twists and nastiness to make even the moments of downtime riveting. The late Stieg Larsson, being and investigative journalist himself, throws all he knows into the narrative, creating moments of tension out of characters sitting around chatting conspiracy and looking over forty year old evidence.
My major beef comes within the last hundred pages. With the main narrative concluded, Larsson insists on rounding up the libel case that opened the book and in having the epominous girl with the dragon tattoo being an expert computer hacker, our heroes not only win too easily but the manor in which they do so seems somewhat contrived. Need impossible evidence to convict the man you’re after? Lisbeth Salander to the rescue. She’s too much like hackers you see in movies like Swordfish. A couple of taps at the keyboard, the use of a back door here, the use of a decoding encryption there and viola! All the incriminating information you need. It’s weak, sloppy and a tad unnecessary. And it certainly did not need a hundred fucking pages dedicated to it.
But it did at least make me want to read the next two, which I have ready and waiting. The Girl Who Played With Fire, its immediate sequel, focuses on Salander on the run after being accused of murder. A much more bare bones and more enticing prospect after this labyrinth plot line.
4/5
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