It's satisfying to really want to tear through a book, like I did with this one. Larsson, while perhaps not terribly eloquent with the prose, is nevertheless a great storyteller.This book is classed in the Fiction/Literature section, but is really a mystery. It's one of those mixed-up stories where everybody is a suspect with red flags a-flyin'. And really, almost everybody is a suspect. It's a closed-room mystery. Basic plot: a disgraced financial investigative journalist is hired by a wealthy old man to "write his autobiography," which is code for find out what happened to his niece when she disappeared 40 years ago. The catch is this: the wealthy family lived on an island, and the only route on/off the island was blocked at the time of the niece's disappearance. Someone who was on the island at the time knows what happened; it's just a matter of figuring out which person, whether they're still around, and what they can tell us. Along the way, we discover all sorts of other nasty details about the family, and learn about the life and adventures of our intrepid hero and his pouty, punky, conniving research assistant.
I got totally wrapped up in the characters (especially the punky assistant -- she's always up to something), and in the whodunnit. Now I can't wait to read the second one!
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