| Title: | The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo |
| Author: | Stieg Larsson |
| Genre: | Scandinavian Murder/Crime Fiction/Thriller |
| Synopsis: | A disgraced journalist is asked to investigate the 40 year old disappearance of a young girl and finds himself joining forces with a dysfunctional hacker in order to uncover a much more shocking chain of events than anyone anticipated. |
| Verdict: | Harsh, confronting but balanced and enjoyable. Fresh characters that exceed expectations with their actions and depth. The first part of the book is heavily taken up with establishing the characters’ back stories and personalities but I felt it was time well spent which paid off later on. |
| Pages: | 533 |
| Read: | October 2009 |
30 October 2009
#23. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
#22. The Death Of A Mafia Don by Michele Giuttari
| Title: | The Death Of A Mafia Don |
| Author: | Michele Giuttari |
| Genre: | Italian Crime Fiction/Police Procedural |
| Synopsis: | There is an attempt on a policeman’s life that leads back to a mafia power struggle and political corruption. |
| Verdict: | It felt very forced and the action one-step removed, I didn’t really care what happened to the main character and only really felt sorry his for enthusiastic but underappreciated assistant. Either it was a bad translation or a decent plot badly written. |
| Pages: | 371 |
| Read: | October 2009 |
#21. A Mind To Murder by P. D. James
| Title: | A Mind to Murder |
| Author: | P. D. James |
| Genre: | Murder/Crime Fiction/Police Procedural |
| Synopsis: | An unpopular nurse at a psychiatrist’s clinic is murdered in a thoroughly unexplainable fashion. Though surrounded by mental patients and disgruntled co-workers in a secure environment a culprit is no easier to find than an explanation. |
| Verdict: | P. D. James books always feel a bit cold and formal but this one felt particularly clumsy and old-fashioned as it was written in the 1960s/1970s by an upper-class author who made plenty of references to girls completing typing courses and getting jobs in order to pass the time until they met a nice gent. Mostly I read P. D. James for the descriptions of clothes and food, odd I know. |
| Pages: | 225 |
| Read: | October 2009 |
#20. Nation by Terry Pratchett
| Title: | Nation |
| Author: | Terry Pratchett |
| Genre: | Fiction/Drama/Humour/Alternate History |
| Synopsis: | A young girl is shipwrecked on an island during a hurricane that wiped out almost the entire island’s population bar one young man. As survivors from surrounding islands join them they must each overcome their alienness to each other in order to communicate, survive and try make sense of the world they now find themselves in. |
| Verdict: | A touching, engaging look at cultural divides and how hard it can be to find a common ground that allows each side to recognise the shared humanity that truly underlies it. Pratchett’s strongest female character yet. This is a masterpiece. |
| Pages: | 404 |
| Read: | October 2009 |
#19. Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
| Title: | Last Watch |
| Author: | Sergei Lukyanenko |
| Genre: | Russian Supernatural/Horror/Thriller/Drama |
| Synopsis: | Ordinary humans are being mobilised against Others as part of the ongoing centuries old intrigue for power which is rapidly spiralling out of control and spilling out onto the streets (woo! clichéd terms!) |
| Verdict: | I will never stop being amazed by how the elements of all four novels were drawn together and how almost every little thing was referred to again highlighting that they were all part of a comprehensive whole, with nothing left to chance or incidental to the story as a whole. Awesome. |
| Pages: | 394 |
| Read: | October 2009 |
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