The book was written by Stieg Larsson, but it thrives because of its tranlation by Reg Keeland. Honestly, the writing was completely transparent: I’d have thought of it as written well informed English if I didn’t know better.
I picked this up in Toronto on my way back, and was very pleasantly surprised by the writing, plot, and characters. They all have real and significant foibles– even the good guys have serious problems and can be their own worst enemy.
Given the title, I was surprised by the amount of screen time that was devoted to Mikael Blomkvist, but it was a good choice. Lisbeth Salander is interesting– in many ways she’s like a WoD character with a lot of points in flaws used to buy some exceptional traits. She’s not a superhero, but she’s very good at what she does.
Sweden turns out to have a few skeletons, at least in this telling. In many ways it’s a police procedural (well, anchored by an investigative journalist instead of a policeman, and the case is quite old…) but it has a lot of differences. The unusual to my experience setting is wonderfully revealed: the differences are small and typical assumptions are mostly right, but they build as the book continues.
In the end, I enjoyed the book thoroughly and will be requesting the next ones from the library.