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4thofelevenI don’t want to say this book is bad, it had its moments, but the more I think about the plot, the less sense it seems to make. I find myself genuinely baffled by the series’ popularity.
To be fair, the title character is entertaining and interesting – even if nowhere near as original as some of the reviews I’ve seen indicated – and the sections from her point of view are the highlights of the book. Unfortunately, just as I was getting into her story, the book cuts back to the mind-numbingly dull protagonist, a character who seems to be comprised entirely of informed attributes and displays no discernable personality. He’s also responsible for most of the story’s idiot plot moments; despite this, the narration insists he’s a brilliant investigative journalist.
One problem is the book is far too long – large sections of the first few chapters are spent providing exposition on a corrupt businessman and the protagonist’s attempts to expose him. This plot is then forgotten for the bulk of the story, which focuses on a completely unrelated murder investigation. Then, just as that’s wrapping up… we cut back to the corrupt businessman story, which I had hoped had been thankfully forgotten. Quite frankly, I’d have had a much higher opinion of the book if that storyline had been cut; it’s dull, bland, unrelated to anything else, and yet for some reason takes up the last few hundred pages, long after the actual storyline is resolved.
The original Swedish title translates as “Men Who Hate Women”. To me, it’s a much better title, and ties together all the various storylines… except the businessman storyline, making it even more obvious how out-of-place and irrelevant it is.
(It occurs to me that in a better book, this could have actually underlined the themes, by contrasting how the 'heroic' male protagonist is conflicted but eventually willing to participate in the cover-up of the rape and murder of women, but won't rest in his determination to expose financial crime. Tie that in with the protagonist's apparent inability to maintain a stable long-term relationship with any woman, and you'd have an interestingly flawed protagonist. Unfortunately, if that's what the author was going for, it doesn't really come through well.)
Oh, and for a book that seems like it’s trying to make a serious point about the systemic nature of abuse of women in modern society, it seems like cartoonish overkill to then make the main villain an incestuous serial killing Nazi rapist!
And I don’t know if this is a translation issue or not, but the prose is just plain awkward throughout the book.
Also, can we declare a moratorium on killing cats in mysteries and thrillers? It always seems like a really cheap attempt by the authors to demonise a villain; easier to hurt a cute animal than make the reader care about their human victims.
To be fair, the title character is entertaining and interesting – even if nowhere near as original as some of the reviews I’ve seen indicated – and the sections from her point of view are the highlights of the book. Unfortunately, just as I was getting into her story, the book cuts back to the mind-numbingly dull protagonist, a character who seems to be comprised entirely of informed attributes and displays no discernable personality. He’s also responsible for most of the story’s idiot plot moments; despite this, the narration insists he’s a brilliant investigative journalist.
One problem is the book is far too long – large sections of the first few chapters are spent providing exposition on a corrupt businessman and the protagonist’s attempts to expose him. This plot is then forgotten for the bulk of the story, which focuses on a completely unrelated murder investigation. Then, just as that’s wrapping up… we cut back to the corrupt businessman story, which I had hoped had been thankfully forgotten. Quite frankly, I’d have had a much higher opinion of the book if that storyline had been cut; it’s dull, bland, unrelated to anything else, and yet for some reason takes up the last few hundred pages, long after the actual storyline is resolved.
The original Swedish title translates as “Men Who Hate Women”. To me, it’s a much better title, and ties together all the various storylines… except the businessman storyline, making it even more obvious how out-of-place and irrelevant it is.
(It occurs to me that in a better book, this could have actually underlined the themes, by contrasting how the 'heroic' male protagonist is conflicted but eventually willing to participate in the cover-up of the rape and murder of women, but won't rest in his determination to expose financial crime. Tie that in with the protagonist's apparent inability to maintain a stable long-term relationship with any woman, and you'd have an interestingly flawed protagonist. Unfortunately, if that's what the author was going for, it doesn't really come through well.)
Oh, and for a book that seems like it’s trying to make a serious point about the systemic nature of abuse of women in modern society, it seems like cartoonish overkill to then make the main villain an incestuous serial killing Nazi rapist!
And I don’t know if this is a translation issue or not, but the prose is just plain awkward throughout the book.
Also, can we declare a moratorium on killing cats in mysteries and thrillers? It always seems like a really cheap attempt by the authors to demonise a villain; easier to hurt a cute animal than make the reader care about their human victims.