Bloody Murder

Last winter my sister-in-law turned me on to Scandinavian mysteries. She highly recommended The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I ordered it from Amazon, read it, and loved it, despite the gory details of the crimes committed. It turned out to be the hot book of the season, and now it is out in paperback and I see it featured every where.

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At the same time, I pre-ordered the second in what is a trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire. I finished that one last week, and now I can't wait for the release of the third book. I'll have to see if I can pre-order it yet.

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Steig Larsson died shortly after completing these three episodes, which were very popular in his native Sweden. As they were translated they have drawn international attention. Their crimes are gory, but the heroine is such an unlikely and unusual character, and the twists and turns of the plot are so unpredictable and suspenseful that it's hard to put them down.

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In between these two books I read a series of other mysteries by Scandinavian authors. Asa Larson sets her bloody murders in the far north of Sweden, in Lapland. Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer solves equally ghastly crimes in Norway. All have been very good reading.

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I am currently reading something quite different, although death is still a very real part of the story. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a wonderful read. It is set in the Channel Islands, in 1946, immediately following the end of WWII and the German occupation of their islands. The story is told through a series of letters, mostly to and from a young woman author. The characters are charming and endearing and their stories are tragic, poignant and heartwarming. This is a must read!