3 Hot Titles and R.I.P.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, Vintage, ISBN 978-0307454546, 608 pages.

Somebody's gotta keep up with the pop (if not quite junk) fiction in this erudite collection of Important Stuff. Dragon Tattoo is the first of a trilogy that Larsson delivered to his publisher then had the bad manners to die before the first was in print. The series has taken Europe by sturm and the third installment is eagerly awaited by any here in the US this summer who ever opened the cover and got hooked. (The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second.) The characters are well oiled and chiseled, a smart, young journalist and his randybabe publisher, a wierdo don't-mess-with-me girl superhacker, some nasty industrialists...a well-rounded cast. The twists and conundrums are just what you need for a long (VERY long) plane ride or a few days on a palm-covered beach in an exotic corner of the world (when you disabuse yourself of seeking all the cultural treasures that corner has to offer...and just order-up another caipirinha). I could tell you all about the story, but that would kill the fun. Read about it on Amazon, if you must, it's in the 1-thou sales rank.