On my Critical Mystery Tour book review site, I've marked "The Girl Who Played With Fire" as my favorite novel of 2008, It started when a publicist sent me a review copy of it for review. I'm so blown away by the complexity and clarity of the Swedish writer's work, and especially in the character of 90 pounds 24 year-old Lisbeth Salander with an ethical code all her own, I was enraptured. It took no genius to see the film potential in it. If there was anything to steer a film producer away, it would be in the three-plot, complex construction that Larsson so ingeniously and passionately managed with perfect clarity.

When Larsson was 15 he witnessed the gang rape of a young girl. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl. Her name was Lisbeth. It's clear from the books he wrote that it was something he had lived with the rest of his life, as a writer and as a decent man. His "Girl" trilogy is evidence of it.

His character, Mikael Blomkvist, was patterned on Larsson (1954-2004), himself, who was editor-in-chief of Expo magazine. With that as his platform for his activism against anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and nazi organizations, he became recognized as a leading expert. He lectured on the subject in venues ranging from secondary schools to Scotland Yard.

Where, in all this, was there also incubating the mastery of dramatic fiction writing in the mystery genre is, itself, a mystery. But, it's evident from reading his books that he had a great genius for the craft in all its aspects. It's all the more impressive in that the The Millenium Trilogy was his first large scale fiction project.

In 2003 he embarked on what he envisioned would be a great deal more than a trilogy. It wasn't he who branded it so. His envisioned ten-book series would, in the framework of high drama, expose corruption in the Swedish government, among other things. The first book he titled "Man som hatar kvinnor," or, Men Who Hate Women. It was legendary editor/publisher Christopher MacLehose who acquired the books in England who came up with "The Girl Who..." titles, changing the first one to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." One can only contemplate how much these captivating titles for the English-speaking public have contributed to the runaway success of the series.

The movie takes from the book the sequence concerning Salander's new guardian, a rapist control freak who is representative of the moral perversity pervading the Swedish government, which was Larsson's driving purpose and described in far greater detail in the book than could be encompassed in a movie.

He went on to complete two more books which bring him to 2004 and "The Girl Who Played With Fire," the content of which we get in the Oplev movie in the flashback showing Lisbeth Salander as a child, putting a stop to her father's sadism toward her, but mostly toward her mother, by dousing him with gasoline and setting him on fire, making the point loud and clear that this is a child you abuse and underestimate at your own peril.

Shortly after completing his third book, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," the content of which we can guess at, Larsson died of a massive heart attack, leaving a literary mark on the mystery book world and film industry alike. It has produced sales and boxoffice records in both media, arousing Sony Pictures to envision yet greater potential with an American re-make and the much greater cash potency of leading stars.

The imagination boils when I think about what a ten-book series might have been. The intrigue over it multiplies when you learn that three quarters of a fourth novel was found on his hard drive after his death and is now in the possession of Eva Gabrielson, his live-in partner of many years. A release of this work is currently entangled in legal issues.

The dates imply the rather furious rate at which Larsson was able to write, especially considering the depth and complexity of the plotlines. I've never had a greater sense of untimely loss for a literary figure than for this possessor of such a powerfully creative mind.

Larsson left no legally acceptable will. Gabrielson, according to an unwitnessed document, might have inherited all rights to his work, but under Swedish law his estate has been awarded to his closest blood relatives.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner  

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