The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Maclehouse Press (2005)
Translated by Reg Keeland


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first of three, a trilogy of crime thrillers completed just before the premature death of the author. It was awarded the Galaxy British Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2009 and has been released as a film.

The book is a 'must read' and the film perhaps a 'miss' but I would suggest you make your own mind up on that one. I loved it and cannot wait to read the second one. We bought the trilogy as a birthday present for one of our sons who promised that he would pass them on. However, he was beaten to it by our very dear friends and it arrived by post only a week or so ago.

Two central characters and two stories drive the story. A whole host of other characters make appearances from the significant to walk on parts. Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who at the beginning of the story is convicted for libel under strange circumstances.That is the first story element although for me, it was the less interesting one. Blomkvist has to spend a short time in jail but also decides to step down from the helm of The Millennium a journal he runs with Erika Berger - his sometime lover. The second character is Lisbeth Salander and she is the one who adds some of the mystery to the tale. Obviously, the victim of the Swedish care system, Salander is a girl who shouldn't be messed with. But people obviously have. She has certain gifts with technology and for remembering things, which helps in her role as a security specialist. She does not play by the rules nor expects anyone else too.

She and Blomkvist are brought together by the second story strand, an age-old mystery of the Vanger clan, a wealthy and successful corporation. This is loosely connected to Blomkvists conviction but only by a thread. Henrik Vanger is running out of time, his clock has begun to slow down and he wants answers before it stops. The Vanger family is full of secrets, intrigue and skeletons in the cupboard and the mystery involves the disappearance of Vangers niece some twenty-five years ago. It is the Vanger family which provides much of the secondary but very significant characters of dysfunctional families and there effects on the society around them.

Salander is the girl with the tattoo although this doesn't have much relevance to the story, she does. She is a traumatised soul with whom Blomkvist puts his trust, his faith and possibly his heart. He helps to melt the cool and unfeeling Salander and release emotions within her she had not known existed.

It is well paced, extremely readable despite its translation, although I have to admit I found the names tripped clumsily on my tongue. The conclusion is on the one hand a happy one but not without a price and for Blomkvist almost the end. But you will want to read on, you will not want to put it down and when you've read it you will want to read the next one.

Readability Rating: 8
Recommendation To Buy: Without Doubt - get the trilogy

Novel Writing - 16 Steps to Success by Evan Marshall

Novel Writing – 16 Steps to Success

By Evan Marshall

Publisher: A & C Black Publishers Ltd ( Feb 2000)

ISBN: 978-0713652925

Creating a novel – is it a process, clearly defined with logical steps or is it a more organic creation, taking you along different paths until you find the place you want to be?

Evan Marshall very much thinks it is a process, with steps, order and templates to help you ‘manage’ your novel. Great, I thought – perhaps that is just what I need to get my story written. I have recently submitted an article on a similar theme – how to organise your novel – the editor liked the idea at first, made some suggestions about how it looked which I took on board and then rejected it for being too ‘vague’. Mmmm.Anyway, he might well have had a point but it was his suggestions that caused the wooliness, my system was very clear.

So what is the point I’m making I hear you cry? Well, just that novel writing, like many other parts of the craft of writing, is very personal. It’s what suits the individual. There isn’t a right or a wrong way. Novel writing is the right way for Evan Marshall and indeed, it cannot be accused of being ‘vague’ in any sense of the word. And as for the 16 Steps to Success, they will only lead to success I imagine if you follow them AND you can write a good tale.

Marshall takes the reader (and the writer) through the mechanical process of writing, including ‘Finding the Right Novel for You’, shaping your ideas and characterisation, which he calls, ‘planning for success’ – a sentiment very much close to my heart and indeed is the key to my own system.

Part 2 incorporates a ‘Complete Guide to Plotting’ full of handy templates but where, I’m afraid I lost interest. It’s just not the side of the brain I use to its best ability - the logical side - and I would never be able to keep it up. But it is a way of organising things. I prefer to let things grow more naturally, less linear, in fact I prefer the meandering path to a straight walk to the centre any day.

Part 3 is about Fiction Writing per se – Marshall refers to ‘Mastering the Modes’ (did you know there were modes in writing – oh yes,). He defines these ‘modes’ in two camps – Action, Summary, Dialogue and Feelings, Thoughts, Background. This too had a lot of interesting stuff for the non-logical writer underneath all the ‘technical’ talk.

It was not until towards the end that my interest really perked up. Up until then I had been skim reading. Here under ‘Polishing Your Manuscript’ was most helpful section on being your own editor. I had a similar experience with ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King, where the most useful advice was about editing. Marshall provides a very useful checklist, which I have and shall use for editing my manuscripts, and is a good reason for purchasing the book. Some of it is common sense, but others are thing that I hadn’t thought about – there is always something to learn about the editing process.

Overall, I found this book a little too technical for me, but could pull out some useful tools and tricks of the trade which helps with the final product. The first part of the novel writing process for me has to be more unrestrained, more of a free spirit.

Readability Rating: 5

Recommend to buy: Certainly, for the last few sections on editing and seeking publication if you are like me. And most definitely if you want some templates which help you to plot and plan.

Assegai by Wilbur Smith

Assegai by Wilbur Smith

Publisher: Macmillan (2009)

Those of you who are not fans of Wilbur Smith may still be aware of the fact that he has written over 30 novels to date. An alarming output. I have read most of them but must admit that a couple of years ago, I tired of them. The one I'd just finished (and I can't remember which one it was, an indicator on its own) had seemed too formulaic, too predictable and I just didn't enjoy it.

Therefore, it was with much trepidation that I picked up the Assegai his latest novel, which has just recently been released in paperback. It is set just before the outbreak of World War I in Africa and forms part of ‘The Courtney’s' series. These novels usually involve one of the Courtney males, a dashing handsome fella, with a passion, not only for women but also for action. Not a bad combination for a good novel.

The story therefore begins on the nineteenth birthday of Leon Courtney and references a dalliance with a pretty young widow. However, the story soon moves on to Courtney's experience in the army when he is despatched to secure an outpost and protect the family there. However, when he and his band of soldiers (which includes his best friend, a Massai warrior known as Manyrono) the inhabitants have already been savagely killed by the Nandi tribe. It is not long before Courtney and his men are attacked and he finds himself carrying his injured friend Manyrono to safety leaving behind his men who have fallen to the Nandi’s. Having returned his warrior to his tribal camp, Courtney is made an honorary son of the leader of the tribe - Manyrono's mother. This relationship will prove to be very useful in predicting what actions Courtney must take in the future. However, when Courtney reports back to his superiors he is accused of abandoning his fellow soldiers and of failing to secure the safety of the outpost.

But, Leon Courtney has connections. His uncle, Penrod  is Commander of the British Forces in East Africa. He persuades his nephew, who has the desire to leave the army and dedicate his life to hunting, to undertake a mission for him, which in part will satisfy this desire. He is recruited to work with a big game hunter who provides services for rich and powerful men from America and Europe. Part of his role is to gather information from one of these men. Count Otto Van Meerbach is a German industrialist. He is also a bully, a sadist, and a keen and dangerous hunter. But he is central to an attack that will but the British Army in peril. 

Leon takes on the assignment but falls under the spell of the Counts mistress, Eva, a mysterious beautiful but sad woman. He falls hopelessly in love with her and his love his reciprocated but Eva has a secret, which puts their relationship to the test. It is at this point that Smith inserts a slightly supernatural element to his story, often seen in other novels. It's very subtle and manifests itself through Leon's adoptive mother who can see the future but can only offer vague clues and the young Massai men who as part of their initiation into manhood have to demonstrate their courage and bravery against a lion.

As usual, Smith is adept at the descriptive prose; his ability to place the reader in the middle of the action in a country most of us have never visited is without doubt. I swear I could here the chanting of the young warriors and the cries of the wild animals. It is not a complicated tale but a comfortable one. Of love, power, secrets, faith, and I am happy to report that I didn’t find it stilted or formulaic. If you are going to read Wilbur Smith then I guess there will always be a slight sense of ‘déjà vu’ and I suppose part of my disappointment last time were my expectations. If you enjoy a writer’s style, the obvious feeling you might get is one of familiarity. And Assegai is an entertaining story and one with a more than satisfactory ending. Eventually.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Publisher: Hodder and Hodder (2009)
ISBN: 978-0571215294


I loved this story. It wasn’t fast paced, nor full of steamy activities, nor murder or mayhem. It was intriguing. It did capture my imagination. It made me shed a tear. The Secret Scripture is a story of love, loss and ignorance. But it is also a story of power, misplaced power at that, power held by people who thought they were right. But their actions influenced not one but many lives for decades.


Roseanne is at the beginning of the story, an old woman of around 100 years old. She has spent most of her life incarcerated in a mental health hospital, but it appears no one knows why. The story centres around her doctor unravelling the mystery. Her medical records are lost or incomplete and the hospital is closing down. Decisions need to be made about her relocation.
Dr Grene is the psychiatrist in charge of her care and has never really paid much attention to his eldest patient until now. But finding out what lies behind her incarceration becomes almost his obsession. He is an Irishman, brought up by adoptive parents in England and lives a sterile, loveless life with his wife.
The story is told through flashbacks to Roseanne’s life and the observations of Dr Grene as both characters record their memories and thoughts in independent journals – the secret scriptures.


The Secret Scriptures is set in rural Sligo, Ireland with flashbacks between the present day and Roseanne’s childhood and her incarceration as a young woman in the 1930’s.
The use of the present tense for both main characters allows you to enter their minds and see things as they see them – an intimate experience – you hear, feel and see their pain and their struggles and their desires. Barry has a certain poetic feel to his description and he cleverly weaves together the old woman’s memories with the facts of the day. Roseanne’s recall of events is understandably shrouded in a mist, she herself is no longer certain if what she remembers is the truth.
Dr Grene is thorough with his research around the circumstances leading to Roseanne’s arriving at the institution; even the death of his wife does not deter him. He is determined to make the right decisions for her future, no matter how short that may be.
Eventually the missing pieces are put together, with an ending, which was beginning to take shape but not clear until the end.


The Secret Scripture is beautifully narrated and I almost could reach out and touch Roseanne, so real did she seem. Through the bland although rather endearing character of Dr Grene, we learn that bad things happen, that there is little that can be done about them now, but we hope that they never happen again. A truly delightful but serious tale.


About the Author
Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction twice and won the Costa Book of the Year Award in 2008.

Readability Rating: 10 (A Serious Good Read)

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Book Review
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Hodder 2004)
ISBN 978-0-340-91861-6


I have read most of Jodi Picoult's books. She is fairly unique in her approach and her prolific output in taking extremely controversial issues, usually issues I have very strong feelings about, and manages to show me the other side. Usually it is the side I have chosen to dismiss, or ignore or sometimes just haven’t considered. Some of my reasoning is hard to determine, a kind of subconscious ‘that’s how it is’ reasoning. She has written about bullying and mass killing of school students, organ donation from a murderer of the receiver’s sister and the issues surrounding an Amish family and a girl in trouble. Her novels are about normal life, families and relationships which experience something which tests their strength and their unity and their beliefs.


My Sister’s Keeper was published in 2004 and has recently been made into a film. Picoult who is a very keen researcher of the issues she covers, writes this one from the position of some expertise. That of a mother of a child who suffered some considerable illness.


Kate is the daughter of Sarah and Brian Fitzgerald. They have an older son Jesse and all seems well with their world. Until, at the age of two, Kate is diagnosed with a rare form of childhood leukaemia. None of the family are suitable as bone marrow donors and they are faced with the impossible – the death of their daughter. So they, as in Sarah, make the decision to have another child. Not as a replacement for Kate, but as a donor for Kate. Anna is Kate’s younger sister and a designer baby. Controversial issues but Sarah is clear that she loves Anna as much as Kate and that Anna would want this for her sister. From the second Anna is born, she undergoes medical intervention for the benefit of Kate.


Picoult weaves her way through the very difficult emotional and psychological issues which modern medical technology has created in its fast and creative development. Why wouldn’t a parent want to do all they could to help their dying child. Even if that meant using another? The reasoning behind Sarah’s beliefs is unshakeable and almost defendable. The focus of the story centres on the very real pressure of a family under duress, and a child with a terminal illness. Kate would like to be ‘normal’ and hates the attention and the demands her illness puts on her family. Jesse – a sultry teenager - turns to drastic attention seeking activities, including drugs, booze and fire raising. He craves the attention of someone, anyone. And Anna, at the age of thirteen, seeks legal help to obtain the rights to her own body. This decision seems to be generated by Kate’s last option to extend her life. A kidney transplant.


The story is told through the eyes of the key characters; Sarah and Brian, Kate, Jesse and Anna – with chapters dedicated to each where we learn of their conflicting and reasonable reactions to the enforced chaos the action by Anna brings. It also helps us to get to know the family, from the time before Kate’s illness and their mechanisms to cope with it. A separate small sub plot is provided through the relationship with Anna’s lawyer her Guardian Ad Litem, a woman appointed to represent and advocate on Anna’s behalf.


So, does Kate get her kidney in the end? Does the family survive and how does Anna cope with the overwhelming ball she has set rolling? The ending is a surprise, a cruel twist that brought more than a tear to my eye. It felt most unfair, but then, life is isn’t it?
However, the key to the stories, indeed to most of Picoult’s stories, is that there are always two (or more) sides to consider.

On Writing by Stephen King

This is my first book review on the site and I have therefore chosen a book naturally, on writing. I have shelves of these kinds of books and have made a promise to myself this year to actually dust them off and read them. Keeping this blog will hopefully motivate me to achieve that.

Now I'll start with a confession. I have never, ever, read any of Stephen King's books. Not one. I have seen one of his films though, Misery, which was fantastic. So why would I buy a book of his now? He is a prolific writer in a genre I'm not particularly fond of. Well, as you can tell by the title, On Writing is not a fiction, thriller or fantasy. Its many things but not one of Kings usual preferences. I'd read several snippets about the book, comments made by other writers and book reviews and decided that I would add it to my Amazon wish list. It stayed there for a year until I recently gritted my teeth and bought it. 

On Writing is a mixture of things. The first part is definitely an autobiography - King refers to it as his 'CV' and it details his first exploration as a child into the writing process, the influence of his wife, his dabble into the darker sides of life and his commitment to writing is without doubt. This gives a useful insight into Stephen King, the man, or the life that has made him a writer. King believes above all that writing is a serious thing, and that if writers take their craft seriously, they may, may, just get something out of it. Not bad advice.

The large part of the book is Kings take on the process of writing. He refers to a writers 'toolbox' and makes some suggestions about what he personally believes are the essential elements; vocabulary, grammar (but without all the scary stuff); style, and he admits, a little bit of magic. 

King writes every day, every single day and not just the odd word - he aims to write at least 2000 words per day. That's a lot of words come the end of the year. He views writing as a joy, not a drudge, a sentiment that writers often lose sight when they are stressed by deadlines, rejections and the blank page. King also makes reference to the great plot or character debate. He is very character driven, from whom the plot takes shape and he’s very clear about why. He uses his work and the work of others (Grisham, Clancy for example) and shares the struggles he experienced and overcame. 

The final element of Kings book is about his accident and how writing helped his recovery from such a dreadful and shocking trauma. The injuries he sustained were significant but it was his desire to write and the encouragement and support of his wife, which enabled him to return to his desk. He ends the book with a list of books which 'worked' for him, some of them well known, others more obscure, but demonstrates his very broad taste in literature. 

For me, the part that I really gained most from was his very thorough look at the editing process. This King learnt from one of his first editors and he applies the theory to every piece of work. Essentially it's about cutting the slack (by at least 10%), paying attention to every word and its contribution to the whole. King provides an example with text explaining what and why. 

On Writing  doesn't give any answers to the big questions about the writing process. Nor does it claim to. What it does is give an insight into one writer’s experience. One very successful writer’s experience. King doesn't preach, but he certainly voices his opinion. It is up to the reader whether to apply any of his methods to see if they work for them.