Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

I'm not going to write a full on review of this book. It is probably the most written about book appearing in 2008 and is appearing on top ten lists all across the blogosphere. You find excellent reviews and discussions on these blogs. Be sure to read the comments as well.

The Rap sheet and here.

Crime Scraps and again here.

Eurocrime

Mysteries in Paradise

Oh, just do a search in your feed reader on Dragon Tattoo and you'll find an abundance of discussion.

Some of my observations:

I liked the UK cover better but that is usually the case with me.

The first two hundred pages did drag on a bit but I didn't mind too much. I listened to it on my iPod during a long dental procedure and later on a long road trip to Florida. Besides, I like to read Charles Dickens' novels. Bleak House and the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce prepared me.

The character Lisbeth Salander fascinates me and is why I put Dragon Tattoo on my top ten list. Declan Burke, on the other hand, said (here and here) that Salander was looking like the "idealised fantasy of a middle-aged man" and "The Lisbeth character, meanwhile, came on like a goth Modesty Blaise who was simply too good to be true." I don't know about the middle-aged male fantasy bit (yes I do but don't want to admit it) but I don't disagree with the second statement. Of course, I have a weakness for goth and would probably dabble in it if I were a teenager today. And I read Modesty Blaise as a teenager - talk about male fantasies. I also didn't find Salander's technical skills too far off.

I too believe that the original title, Men who Hate Women is more descriptive but probably failed the marketing test in favor of the sexier Dragon Tattoo.

I found it riveting when Blomkvist and Salander's investigations really got going in the last third. It was worth the wait.

I liked enough to order the UK edition of The Girl who Played With Fire and purchased a print copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for reference and probable later re-read.

Review: Red Riding Quartet, David Peace

1974, Serpent's Tail, 1999, ISBN 978-1-84668-705-1, 295 pages
1977, Serpent's Tail, 2000, ISBN 978-1-84668-706-8, 341 pages
1980, Serpent's Tail, 2001, ISBN 978-1-84668-707-5, 376 pages
1983, Serpent's Tail, 2002, ISBN 978-1-84668-708-2, 405 pages

First off, I liked this series but I'm not sure I will be able to explain why. No other crime novels have made me wish I was more widely read and had a background in literary criticism.

For U.S. readers, riding is a term meaning third part. North, East, and West Ridings were formerly administrative divisions of Yorkshire, England.

The Red Riding Quartet is a story of police corruption set against the activities of the Yorkshire Ripper.

1974 does not directly involve the Ripper. Eddie Dunsford is the crime correspondent for the Evening Post. He investigates and quickly becomes obsessed in the case of a missing girl, Clare Kemplay. He thinks there may be a connection between this case and other missing girls, a theory the police violently reject. In spite of being the crime reporter for the paper, Eddie is assigned to provide background for the story while the investigative reporting is given to Jack Whitehead, who was once Crime Reporter of the Year. Eddie doesn't accept this and continues his own probing into the cases and descent into madness.

1974 introduces most of the characters who will appear in subsequent books in the series.

1977 takes us into the Yorkshire Ripper story that will carry through the rest of the books. The Ripper is back, the attacks increasing in frequency, and the police want someone to pin the crimes on. Here, the main characters are Bob Fraser, a police sergeant in 1974 who gave reporter Eddie Dunford information unofficially, and reporter Jack Whitehead. Fraser and Whitehead have something in common, they both are in love with prostitutes. For Fraser, who, we thought of as one of the good guys in 1974, his obsession with Janice Ryan is consuming.

In 1980, the story of the search for The Ripper is taken up by Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Peter Hunter. Hunter is asked to head a Super Squad, a brain trust, to conduct a parallel but secret investigation. Publicly their job will be to advise the official investigation on methods and avenues. Hunter isn't much trusted by most of police force because he has investigated fellow police officers for corruption in the past. Hunter might be too good at his job, someones are nervous, and he soon finds his investigation in jeopardy and and himself the subject of an inquiry.

1983 concludes the quartet. It moves around in time, between 1983 and the events in 1974, 1977, and 1980. The stories are told by BJ, a male prostitute first seen in 1974, lawyer John Pigott, 1977, and senior police official Maurice Jobson, a presence throughout the series. Here most of the questions from the previous books are answered, what happened, who was responsible for what.

The Red Riding Quartet has much vulgarity, profanity, racism, sexism, violence, extreme sexual violence toward women, scenes of extreme police brutality, and no characters this reader could like or identify or sympathize with. The imagery is that of decay, rot, and excrement. The characters mostly display a staggering venality and indifference.

The pages of the books are laid out in in a way that seemed to compel me to keep reading. There will be a left justified sentence or word then under that will be short sentences that pull the reader along with their feverish, frantic intensity.
For example:

Fitzwilliam.
69 Newstead View, TV lights on.
Ninety miles an hour up the garden path.
Knock, knock, knock, knock.
'What do you want?' said Mrs. Ashworth, trying to close the door on me.
A foot in the door, pushing it back.

Throughout the four books the author manipulates the experience to emphasize the nightmarish, surreal atmosphere hovering over Yorkshire. Entire scenes are reproduced from one book to another, italicized internal internalized thoughts or observations from an outside observer intercut the first person narration. In 1977 chapter begins with a bit of conversation between a radio talk show host, John Shark and a caller discussing some aspect of the situation in Yorkshire. In 1980, each chapter begins with narration from the point of view of the Ripper and the Ripper's victim mixed together with no punctuation or capitalization ending in mid sentence and taken up at the next chapter.

These are not easy books to read. Subject matter aside, keeping track of what is happening to whom requires the full attention of the reader. More than once my mind wandered and I found myself having to reread several pages to understand what was happening.

So why can I say that I enjoyed a series populated by characters I didn't like and full of scenes that repelled me but will probably revisit after I read the reviews by other bloggers? I'm still not sure. In Part, I wanted to keep reading to piece together the bits of the story revealed over the four books - ah so that is what happened in that scene in the previous book. I also wanted to know what happened to the characters in the end. Did they survive? Did they get what was due them? And I would say the way the books are written engaged me, the techniques the author used to reflect the horror of the events, not only the murders but the corruption of the police mirroring the degeneracy of those perpetrating the murders.

Review: The Bone Yard, Michelle Gagnon

Mira, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7783-2539-0, 376 pages

I feel the need to start with a "how this came about" introduction.

I have a SecondLife account under the avatar name Max Batra. As one of the Second Life Librarians, I manage Mystery Manor on Info Island to promote mystery literature. I was in-world last August and received an IM inviting me to an author presentation. I couldn't make it but later went to the Athena Island Writers Club to see if there was any information about the event. I found a poster with the cover of Bone Yard advertising Michelle Gagnon's appearance. I went to Michelle's web site, read about her and her books, and decided to read Bone Yard. If you are curious how this sort of virtual event is handled, here is a transcript from Michelle's virtual appearance.

I almost didn't find the book in Barnes and Nobel. For some reason they put it in Fiction rather than Mysteries. Michelle told me that Borders does shelve it in the Crime/Thriller section.

On to the review.

The skeletal remains of five, possibly more, bodies have been found off the Appalachian Trail in the Berkshires on both sides of the border between Vermont and Massachusetts. FBI Agent Kelly Jones has her vacation canceled and is asked to form a task force and advise local law enforcement. Since there is no evidence that any bodies were transported across state lines, she doesn't have jurisdiction. She does carry the threat of Federal involvement. She brings along Dr. Howard Stuart, a forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian.

From the locals, her task force includes Massachusetts Detective Lieutenant Bill Doyle and from Vermont, Lieutenant Monica Lauer of the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation. It's obvious that Monica and Doyle do not along - Monica needles Doyle constantly and Doyle is sullen and hostile. Kelly wonders if they can put aside their differences for the sake of the investigation. Monica, at least, accepts Kelly's role in the investigation. Doyle's opinion is that the investigation is a waste of time and manpower and would prefer to write the whole thing off to accidental hiker deaths and/or Native American burial sites. Anything but a dump site, a boneyard.

Dr. Stuart makes an observation about the remains of a recent victim that gives the task force something tangible to use to identify who he was. The investigation moves ahead with Kelly and Monica having to work around Doyle's lack of commitment.

There is no lack of books featuring serial killers available which can work for and against an author particularly a relatively new one like Gagnon. Serial killer stories continue to fascinate readers so there is a market. How does an author then make their work stand out? Really hitting the gruesome details is one way. I liked how Gagnon approached the subject. The forensic examinations and procedural appeal to me as a reader more than the killer's methods. You need enough detail establish the kind of criminal we have but not enough to make the reader feel like a voyeur. My opinion, my tastes.

The characters are interesting, nicely developed, and the reader feels a connection with Kelly and Monica. Doyle provides the friction and I liked the way Gagnon held off giving revealing motivations until well into the story. She also has the character of Dwight whose involvement adds an interesting dimension to the investigation. Sorry for sounding cryptic but I can't say much more about Dwight without giving away major plot points. He is oddly sympathetic at times.

The plot doesn't move along at thriller speed but is appropriately paced. I'm a procedural junkie and would much rather see a layered investigation.

Gagnon also handles an issue in a way that doesn't annoy me. The conflict between local law enforcement and the FBI is touched upon but not made a major focus. I asked a former homicide detective who had worked with the FBI and he said that they are a good bunch to work with and that their heavy-handed treatment of local law enforcement doesn't happen. It really grates on me when the locals refer to the FBI as the "feebies" in stories.

The author also works in a brief description of the ViCAP, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, and the reluctance of local law enforcement to embrace it. From what I've read this is a realistic attitude. There is a lengthy form of several hundred questions to be filled out to add an incident to the database and local law enforcement agencies often don't feel that they have the time.

Bone Yard is the second of Gagnon's books to feature FBI Agent Kelly Jones. The first is The Tunnels and I like Gagnon's writing enough to add it to my "future read" list
.

Bone Yard is recommended if you like serial killer stories with an emphasis on the investigation but enough gruesome detail to establish that this is one sick killer who has to be stopped.

Veterans Day Rememberance - Mack A. Lundy Jr.

My father passed away in a state veterans home in Florida last year.

At 19 he went to war, serving as a radio operator and waist gunner on a B-24 heavy bomber. On a bombing run over Vienna, Austria on 29 May 1944, his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire. With much of the flight controls shot away, they tried to make it to the Adriatic Sea but had to bail out over Yugoslavia. The entire crew survived but were captured and spent the remainder of the war as POWs. My father was in Stalag Luft VIIa when it was liberated on 29 April 1945.

He never had much to say about that time but looking back I can see what a profound affect it had on him.

You can see more photographs from WWII here.

And more photographs from his life here.

The pilot of Dad's aircraft, Roy Daniels, is the last survivor of that mission. He wrote a book which I discussed here.

Review: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

On occasion, I read something other than crime fiction and this is one of those times.

The Hunger Games is a young adult novel set in a dystopian vision of the U.S. The country is ruled from The Capital, located somewhere near the Rockies. Twelve districts supply The Capital with resources. There was a thirteenth distruct but it was obliterated during an uprising against the government.

Each of the districts takes care of a specific need - agriculture, luxury goods, coal, etc. Where The Capital is technologically advanced and the inhabitants live a life of ease, the districts are kept at a bare, grubby, miserable, substance level with starvation a real possibility.

Once a year the Hunger Games are held to commemorate the revolt that destroyed the thirteenth colony. The Capital plays it as a major celebration but it is a reminder to the districts of what can happen if they get out of line. Each year, a boy and girl, called tributes, between the ages of twelve and eighteen are chosen by lottery to represent their district in the games. The twenty-four young people are forced to fight to the death in an outdoor area that changes from year to year. The contest is televised to The Capital and the districts. The winner gets a house and freedom from work for life. He or she also has the responsibility of mentoring future tributes from the district.

Katniss Everdeen, sixteen years old, takes the place of her younger sister to represent district twelve, known as the Seam. District 12 supplies coal and Katniss' father was a miner who died in an explosion. Kitniss has supported her mother and sister by illegally hunting and knows that she might have a chance where her sister would have none. Joining Katniss is Peeta, the baker's son.

This theme has been done before in Battle Royale, a much more violent Japanese novel and manga series. The Hunger Games takes a different approach to a government's oppression of its people and is an interesting, compelling, thought provoking, and well written story.

The character of Katniss as the resourceful, rebel teenager who takes on adult responsibilities is well developed and realistic. I can see a teenager growing up in those circumstances acting the way she does. I thought of Heinlein's female characters as I read this novel. I can also see myself as a sixteen year old loving the book.

The Hunger Games works well as a story of adventure and survival but also puts the reader in the uncomfortable position of considering "how would I act in those circumstances." With dystopian stories you also look for parallels in our society, could this happen, are there similar examples of this sort of oppression in our history.

This is book one in a series and I look forward to seeing where Collins takes the story.

Collins is also the author of the Underland Chronicles, a series for juveniles that I also recommend.