5 Stars - "The Girl...

...With The Dragon Tattoo"
...Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest"
...Who Played With Fire"

By now, most of you are familiar with Swedish author Steig Larssen's best selling trilogy and his sudden and untimely death after completing the three books. I've read all three and they certainly are what is termed 'a good read'. The main characters are well defined and intriguing, the plots are original, as is the location. "I couldn't put it down" certainly applies.

The 'bad guys' range from corrupt bureaucrats to deranged psychopaths - sometimes embodied in one person. The descriptions of perpetrated violence are harrowing compared to the average crime novel in which the leading character takes a beating that would disable a person for weeks but immediately gets up with a 'few aches and pains'. Not so in these books.

The only thing that bothered me were the many characters named in the book- often with names so similar that it was easy to mix up the characters. And the street names. When a character travels around Stockholm or the countryside on foot or in a car, every street, highway and alley enroute is named - and believe me - nothing as simple as 'Elm St.' A minor kvetch to be sure.

It's sad that there will be no more books by Larssen.