Book Review: "The Girl in the Spider's Web" by David Lagercrantz (continuing the Stieg Larsson 'Millenium' series)

As a fan of the original Millenium trilogy, I was sceptical about a new book by a different author to continue the series, which was brought to an abrupt and sad end by the premature death of Stieg Larsson. I had also read about the unpleasantness between Larsson's father and brother, legal heirs to his estate, and his widowed partner, who had an incomplete draft of his next book on a laptop. This book could never see the light of day without the involvement of his family. Reading the acknowledgments at the end of this new book it is clear that only Larsson's father and brother had a hand in its creation, and it is not the untold sequel held by his partner.

The book is long, and slow to get going, and the second half is much more interesting than the first. It has a labyrinthine (and somewhat implausible) plot, largely centered around out-hacking the hackers, and an interesting familial twist for Salander, who is once again an improbable heroine, ably aided and abetted by Mikael Blomkvist. It is clever and complex, and all the things one would expect from a Stieg Larsson novel.

Interestingly, it is also clearly set up for a sequel. On the last page, Blomkvist and Salander appear headed for a rapprochement, and the dastardly villain behind all the trouble is still out there ...

In the end, I didn't regret reading it, but I was glad that I had read a borrowed copy and not shelled out my hard-earned dollars for it. It is going to be hard to replace the Larsson books and the excellent Swedish tele-movies based on these books. Is this going to be another 'pulp fiction' factory churning out new books every year or so - time will tell. Meanwhile, I wonder what story is yet untold on that laptop???

Book review: 'Hypothermia' by Arnaldur Indridason

This is one of a series of crime novels concerning Icelandic detective Erlendur. At 314 pages I managed to read it during a two-hour 'plane flight. Published in 2009, it came into my hands from a colleague who thought that I might be interested to read it. Having been to Iceland in 2006, its haunting landscape was familiar to me, and had visited Thingvellir national park and seen the view over the lake Thingvallavatn, where much of the action takes place.

Like any detective story, there are a number of threads which initially appear to be unrelated, but are drawn together in the last few pages of the book. Erlendur fits the Scandinavian mould of the somewhat tortured middle-age male detective who is divorced and has a fractured relationship with his family. The story is almost a morality play about the negative consequences of infidelity and how both anger and the desire to be free can drive murderous intent and a fabric of lies and deception. It is also a story about an innocent love story that ends in tragedy, the impact of tragedy and loss over a lifetime, the ghosts that live on, the question of life after death and its intersection with medical madness. It is somewhat poignant that tragedy and loss also enveloped Erlendur's own family in his childhood.

The book is clever in terms of its twists and turns and the way in which the various clues are gradually revealed, and 'putting it all together' really does come down to the last few pages when our suspicions that an apparent suicide was really a murder are confirmed. There is of course a certain element of 'willing suspension of disbelief' as the elements of the plot are spun together, and we are left wondering whether the murderers will in fact 'get away with it'. I was left feeling very sorry that the victim, who was on the verge of getting her life back together again, was so cruelly robbed of this opportunity, and did wonder about things like why would the police not check the plastic rope in the noose for fingerprints, and why would someone who was so afraid of the dark and hated being left alone voluntarily go to stay in an isolated cottage on the edge of Thingvallavatn without the author making more of this inconsistency?

Since I love Iceland, and this is a reasonably good yarn that allowed me to have a few stabs at where it was all heading towards the end, which is always fun, I am going to recommend it! There are apparently several other novels in the series by the same author if you are interested in reading more.

Steig Larsson: The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest (A brief review!)

Having bought all three books in the Millenium trilogy a few years back, I had previously had an abortive attempt at reading this final massive volume of 602 pages.

On a recent long trip I started again from the beginning and succeeded in getting to the end.

For the most part, it is tightly and cleverly written, and reveals the attention to detail in the underlying research. Of course it helps to know the back-story, and the legendary sexual prowess of protagonist Mikael Blomkvist is a little tedious at times, but all the threads of the story are woven together in a masterful and largely satisfying way.

One gets the feeling that it could have been edited a little more tightly, but it is what it is. It portrays strong women, resourceful hackers who it seems can do anything, and a group of elderly men who seemingly have been puppeteers for the Swedish State over many decades.

Given Larsson's untimely demise, it is fitting that it concludes with a raprochement between Blomkvist and Salander.

If you can stay the distance, a worthwhile read!

The end of "Merlin" - "Say it ain't so"!

Over the past five years this fantasy take on the Arthurian legend has been a viewing staple at a family-friendly time on Sunday afternoons.

At its heart was a classic tale of good versus evil, and the value of love and true friendship. It is also a cautionary tale about the power of magic and its eternal corollaries, suspicion, fear and prejudice. The underlying message, which becomes clear in the last couple of episodes, is that magic itself is not evil but bad things happen when it is used for evil purposes. It comes from the earth and life itself, so it can never be destroyed and those who are gifted with it should not be persecuted. There are also a couple of dragons thrown in for good measure! The young Merlin grows over the years, both as a person and a physician and a powerful sorcerer. He lives a double life - on the one hand as Emrys (“immortal’ in the Druid tongue), a dragon whisperer and the most powerful wizard who ever lived, and a humble servant and friend to Arthur and his Queen Guinevere. Arthur only becomes aware that Merlin 'has magic' in the final episode in which Arthur meets his fate (as in the legend, killed by Mordred) and not even Merlin can save him. After the Great Dragon delivers them to the shores of Avalon and Arthur is fading into the shadows of death, Merlin throws into the lake the sword Excalibur, forged in a dragon's breath and recently used by Merlin finally to dispatch Morgana, who had devoted her entire energies and magical powers to trying to kill Arthur so she could assume the throne of Camelot, and the hand of the 'Lady of the Lake' rises up to take it into the depths. The high priestesses on the island in the centre of the lake were supposedly the only ones who could save Arthur from the fragment of Mordred's sword (also forged in a dragon's breath) lodged in his chest and working its way towards his heart.

The Great Dragon tells a crying Merlin that Arthur is a "once and future king" and he will return again when Albion needs him most. Merlin places the dead (or dying) Arthur in a boat and sends him across the lake (presumably to the high priestesses).

Abruptly in the next scene a lorry roars by the lake, and an old and wizened Merlin is seen walking along the side of the road, and pauses briefly in silhouette in front of the citadel across the lake, and then disappears into the distance. It appears that he has been alone and watchfully waiting to serve Arthur again for hundreds of years.

Suddenly it was over and gone, and I think on analysis the overwhelming feeling I had was grief and loss. Without seeking in any way to trivialise meaningful grief and loss, it was as if you had both lost some people you had come to know and like and feel an attachment to over time, and not only that but it had finished on such a tragic note. Arthur was gone, his great love Guinevere had been left behind to rule Camelot on her own, and over time Merlin would also have lost everyone else who has dear to him. Centuries later the seemingly immortal Merlin, who considered his life's destiny and purpose to serve Arthur, seems lost and alone and without purpose. One can only hope that one day Arthur does indeed rise again.

I have had this feeling once before when the Scandinavian crime series "The Eagle" unexpectedly finished after three seasons. There had been the same sense of being comfortable with the characters who were on the side of good, and looking forward to finding out what happens next. At the conclusion of the last episode of the third season screened, the troubled and Aspergers-ish eponymous lead character Halgrim Halgrimsson (nicknamed "The Eagle") at last has his own home in Denmark and is sitting in the kitchen bathed in sunlight and sheer white curtains fluttering in the breeze whilst he looks contentedly at a photograph of his baby daughter who lives in Sweden. It is as if there is now closure on a whole chapter of his life and hope for the future. As a result I was disappointed but not surprised to look online and discover that the series had wrapped up on that note. I very much fear that the outstanding Danish series "The Protectors" (which was made by the same team) has met the same fate after only two seasons. Let's hope not!

I suppose it is the mark of a good drama when it draws people in to follow it and to become attached to the characters. Over the past twelve months in addition to "Merlin" and "The Protectors", I have enjoyed watching the other Scandinavian series "The Bridge", the American series "Homeland" and the quirky Australian series "Offspring".

Kenneth Branagh's "Wallander" - Why I don't like it!

Readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of the Swedish dramatisations of the stories of Henning Mankell's fictional detective Kurt Wallander. The only one of the books I have read was the final one ("The Troubled Man" - reviewed earlier), which I found very disappointing.

Although I found the idea of making an English version of Wallander quite strange when the Swedish ones were so good, I decided to watch it and see what it was like. At first it seemed quite bizarre that the setting and props were all Swedish, but the characters were speaking with quite distinct English accents. It was also a bit unsettling that some of the characters and their relationships were quite different to the Swedish portrayals e.g., the prominent role of Wallander's father in the early episodes and the presentation of his daughter Linda, who was also a detective in the Swedish series and only became pregnant in the final book.

The stories are generally very tortured, 'noir' and depressing, athough at times the writers seem to try to infuse them with an element of hope. The crimes are often very violent and unsettling. Branagh's Wallander lacks conviction compared to the portrayal by Krister Henricksson. He is perpetually unshaven, often impetuously driving long distances alone through the bare and evocative southern Swedish countryside, and struggles to relate to colleagues, family or lovers in a meaningful way. There is something 'namby-pamby' about him - a certain timidity or blandness stemming from an apparent uncertainty about who he is other than a detective who is good at solving crimes. There is a sense that he wants to live in the world and be 'good with people' but is it that he doesn't know how or that he is simply incapable?

Wallander's colleagues seem stiff and unsure of how to deal with him, and they do not have the same range of idiosyncratic interest as their Swedish equivalents. It just all seems too anguished, and I am not drawn in and engaged - the plot just seems to go on for far too long.

Sadly SBS is running its repeats of the Swedish version in the early hours of the morning. However, several series are available on DVD at reasonable prices from places such as JB HiFi.

Scandinavian Crime Drama - "The Bridge" and "The Protectors" (paying homage to "The Eagle")

SBS has recently been screening some high-quality Scandinavian crime drama in the form of the Swedish and Danish co-production "The Bridge" and the second season of the Danish drama "The Protectors".

One of the things that I have always liked about the Scandinavian storylines and casting is that they portray people who are "ordinary" in appearance and their foibles, and not all "beautiful people" as is often the case in American-made series. In "The Bridge", one of the two key detectives is a Swedish female with distinct Asperger Syndrome characteristics. She is very good at her job but a bit of a disaster when it comes to interpersonal relations. The storyline is still unfolding, but it is cleverly written, with lots of twists and turns in the plot, and clever linkages between characters that initially appear to be almost randomly introduced into the story.

"The Protectors" has been screened in two-hour blocks, allowing a complete story arc to unfold, and this has been very satisfying from the viewer's perspective. At the conclusion of Season Two, several career changes for key members of the cast are foreshadowed. The writers some years earlier also wrote another outstanding Scandinavian crime series "The Eagle". This was based around a charismatic (but also somewhat Aspergers-ish) male detective who was the lynchpin in a task force investigating transnational crime in Europe and based at Holmen in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In an interesting twist, actor Thomas Gabrielsson played one of the arch villains in "The Eagle" but was head of the Protector unit. At the end of the second season of "The Protectors", he drives his wife to that same location at Holmen and explains to her that he would like to take up a job as head of a new transnational crime task force to be based there! It was a lovely thought to imagine that there might be new adventures for The Eagle, but sadly it probably isn't going to happen.

From an internet search, it appears that there may be a third season of "The Protectors" yet to come, but regardless all three series are recommended viewing!

Scandinavian Crime Fiction Book Review - The Black Path by Åsa Larsson

This was another iTunes $4.99 special randomly selected for reading. By the end a feeling had begun to creep over me that much crime fiction is formulaic, and now that I have read a few crime novels it is easier to appreciate why Stieg Larsson's testy and anarchical Lisbeth Salander was a revolutionary "breath of fresh air".

This novel begins in Abisko in the far north of Sweden during winter. A woman's corpse is accidentally discovered covered up in a fishing ark on a frozen lake. She shows signs of having been tortured and is wearing expensive lingerie under her track suit.

Two detectives (a happily married woman with a brood of children and a divorced man who has just lost his beloved cat) are assigned to the case, and they are assisted by Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson, who is undergoing a tenuous recovery from a nervous breakdown after shooting three men in self-defence.

There are a number of parallels between this work and that of Camilla Läckberg ("The Ice Princess") and Henning Mankell's Wallander series, but the most uncanny similarities lie with "The Ice Princess". Once again we see the seedy underbelly of the Swedish corporate world, with an emotionless oligarch who suffered a deprived and painful childhood. He has a brother-and-sister team as his right-hand persons, and at one stage there is a hint of an incestuous relationship. Kallis Mining is involved in questionable activities in Africa and the quest to cover this up ultimately brings an untimely end to many of the key players. Kallis has a half-sister who is both a seer and a painter (the theme of a key character who is a painter recurs in both "The Ice Princess" and Mankell's works - Wallander's ageing father). She lives with him and his retainers on his large country estate and foresees and prepares for the coming apocalypse.

Martinsson is instrumental in unravelling the threads of the mystery, and in the course of doing this unravels her own feelings for her ex-boss and eventually summons up the courage to act on this.

One murder turns into two once the apparent suicide of a local journalist is investigated, and an elusive contract killer (also linked to Africa) is implicated.

The denouement comes swiftly close to the end of the book. Our two intrepid detectives go to arrest Kallis (who has paid for both 'hits' to be carried out) at the same time that a team of assassins dispatched by the Africans (who have become aware of his shady dealings) arrive at the estate planning to "kill everyone" while Kallis is hosting a dinner party for all his African co-conspirators. They proceed to do this with great efficiency after severing the power (including the gratuitous killing of a small baby) but in a strange twist of fate Kallis' half-sister manages to rescue him and carry him towards the boat landing at the edge of the forest, where (somewhat conveniently) his wife, who has also managed to escape, is abut to make a speedy exit in their boat. The half-sister sinks into the snow and we are led to believe that she bleeds to death (which seems physiologically impossible given the way her wounds are described) and Kallis' wife hauls him into the boat and they speed away into the night. We are given the impression that money will buy him treatment away from prying eyes and a new identity and a new life (their children are safe with their grandparents). Two of the assassins are killed by the detectives and the rest flee.

Martinsson ends up with her boss, the lonely detective hopes to find love with the widow of the murdered journalist (having acquired a new cat in the meanwhile) and Kallis lives to fight another day, which seems profoundly unfair!

I have to admit I have not read many novels in recent years, but it does seem strange to me that the chapters in a number of these crime books are of such irregular (and often extended) lengths, which can make the old maxim of "just one more chapter before I turn the light out" rather challenging!

It is a cleverly-written book and all the threads are woven together in a cohesive way at the end. There are both quirky and believable characterisations, and it was not surprising that the malevolent oligarch turned out to be the person who regarded life as expendable, even that of his closest allies. There was perhaps too much by way of flashbacks to the history behind the murky politics and the ménage à trois, but otherwise a pleasant enough read.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction Book Review: The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

Several years ago a dear Swedish friend of mine gave me a copy of this book in Swedish when departing home after six months of working in Australia. I never did get around to reading more than just a few pages, but a couple of months ago iTunes offered a special deal on selected Scandinavian crime fiction offerings, and I decided to buy the book in English.

The title refers to Alexandra, a beautiful (and secretly pregnant) woman who is found dead with her wrists slashed in a bathtub in the middle of winter in a Swedish seaside town. The tortured alcoholic artist for whom she was a muse likens her dead body to an “ice princess”. Each chapter of the book starts with an elegiac preface from the perspective of this man who hovers between creation and self-destruction. He is at one stage wrongly accused of the murder and is later found dead himself; it is initially speculated at the hands of the same killer but this turns out to be another twist in the tale.

This book does not have chapters in the traditional sense, as they are small in number and some are frustratingly long, especially when you are thinking “I will just finish this chapter before turning the light out and going to sleep”. The first chapter was long and contains frenetic character and scene changes. There is an introduction to many protagonists, some named, some not, and one has the feeling that all these people will in some way be important to the resolution of the storyline. It appears to be a story about secrets, and piecing together the tale that the dead cannot tell.

The second chapter was not so long but continued ‘setting the scene’ and introduced a couple more less likeable characters and a twenty-five year old mystery disappearance of the scion of a local wealthy industrial family, which somehow seems linked to the murder. In the next three chapters we see a darker side to some of the characters as well as a blossoming romance between the heroine Erica and Patrik, one of the detectives investigating the case. The intensity of grief of the cuckolded husband seems to rule him out and the artist is exonerated, but we begin to wonder about various other males that we have been introduced to, including Erica’s abusive and manipulative brother-in-law, her ex-boyfriend Dan and the adoptive brother of the missing scion. Secrets concerning these three men are gradually revealed. There is a strained relationship between the the widow of the industrialist and mother of the dead artist, the widow’s former maid. A mysterious relationship is also revealed between the widow and Julia, the plain sister of the dead woman. Minor characters come and go, some more beguiling than others, including Patrik’s colleague Annika, and Dan’s wife Pernilla is seen to possess unsettling wrathful qualities.

The author hints that relevant clues are being collected by Erica and Patrik, but ‘the big picture’ is not yet clear. There is concern raised about the possibility of harm to Erica if she keeps digging into the matter, but dig she will as she has been commissioned to write a biography about the deceased woman.

Although it would be unsporting to reveal the denouement of the book, all the loose ends are wrapped up in the final sixty pages or so. Patrik, Erica and her sister Anna and her children all have a shot at future happiness. A deep and dark complicity between five of the main characters is revealed along with the truth about the shadows hanging over Alexandra. Surprising secrets are revealed concerning Julia and the identity and motive of the killer. To my great relief, the heroine was not threatened with any harm and thus there were no implausible escapes (such as in Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire”).

Unlike television shows, which typically have an “A” story and a “B’ story in each episode, crime writers seem to delight in packing in as many different convoluted story lines as possible. This book is no exception. It is cleverly done, and enough detail is withheld to keep you guessing until the very end. It would not win a Pulitzer prize for fiction, but is a pleasant enough diversion despite its erratic organisation and perhaps a little too much space devoted to vignettes of peripheral characters.

Verdict: Recommended

Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Most of my reading unfortunately is to do with medical journals and work materials, but I have developed quite an interest in Scandinavian crime fiction after watching the television series "The Eagle" and many episodes of both the Swedish and English adaptations of Swede Henning Mankell's "Wallander" in addition to the trilogy of movies based on Steig Larsson's novels, beginning with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Prior to travelling to Nepal late last year, I purchased a copy of the final Wallander book, "The Troubled Man", which I am sad to say I found rather disappointing. After ploughing through hundreds of pages, it was all concluded speedily and unsatisfactorily in the equivalent of the last five minutes, and I regret that I cannot recommend it. It almost seemed as if the author had become bored with the Wallander character and was merely 'going through the motions' to bring the series to an end. This speedy resolution of the storyline also tends to happen with the episodes of the television series, with varying dramatic success.

I did however enjoy "The Snowman" by Norwegian Jo Nesbø. This is cleverly crafted, and for the observant (who do not read in memory-challenging opportunistic and halting instalments as I must do) the clues to the resolution of the mystery are given at the beginning of the book. This one I can recommend, but it is rather gory in places and is not for the faint-hearted. I

I have also just seen the Norwegian movie "Headhunters", based on one of Jo Nesbø's other novels. This was entertaining and well done, with many unexpected twists and turns, including an unexpected final denouement. At times it did 'push the envelope' in terms of the willing suspension of disbelief, including several implausible escapes from certain death, and once again there was a significant amount of gore. Also not for the faint- hearted but nonetheless enjoyable! It would be interesting to know whether the gruesomeness is a common theme with Nesbø's works.

Having seen all three of the Swedish film adaptations of Larsson's Millenium novels, I was curious to see the Hollywood version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". This was surprisingly good. However, both films have variances from the original novel which in my view detract from the storyline. Which one do I prefer? This is hard to say, but perhaps the Swedish version. Why? Well, it is Swedish, and I particularly like the 'ordinariness' of the appearance of the actors, which makes it more believable. It will be interesting to see if Hollywood proceeds with adaptations of the other two novels. The third movie was by far the best, and convincingly pulled together all the threads woven through the three books into a suspenseful and exciting conclusion.