Silent Man, Mesmerizing Steig Larsson

In the middle of Silent Man at the moment. When I first started it I thought maybe John Wells name should be changed to Jack Bauer but for a action thriller this is more cerebral than I would have given it credit for. Not only does it explore the consequences of the so called 'war on terror' it shows that every man has a limit and when he is pushed beyond it by whatever means his judgement and emotions are blunted and the animal in him takes over. By a combination of luck and sheer balls a group of jihadists get their hands on two nuclear bombs and smuggle them out of Russia. At the same time John Wells is suffering the consquences of his actions from six months previous. The bomb is headed for up-state New York but the men waiting for it don't need the detonation codes they want the fissile material inside. Wells is a unguided missile heading for Russia. At some point they are going to collide and then it's going to get really messy.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is Larsson's first book (he submitted three manuscripts which were all accepted but then sadly he died before he could see them published.) I am loving this. Lisbeth Salander isn't even the main character but she jumps right off the page at you and spits in your eye. Salander is an investigator for Milton Security - their best. She is also deemed mentally incompetent and has been assigned an Advocat. This is common in Sweden. The Advocat has the equivalent of power of attorney, controlling their charges bank accounts and keeping them on the straight and narrow. Salander has just completed an investigation of M Blomquist for the powerful Vanger family. Blomquist is about to go to jail for libelling a business magnate without proof. Blomquist is hired by Henrick Vanger to look into the disappearance and possible murder of his niece Harriet and as new information emerges engages Salander as his researcher but at the same time Salander's old Advocat dies of a stroke and her new Advocat is something else altogether. If Lisbeth is this engaging when she isn't the central character I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.