The first 2010 meeting of the ‘Warwick Books’ Book Club was on Wednesday 20th January at 6.15 at the bookshop. Frances was rather late arriving from Kenilworth, so profuse apologies.
We had read “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. This book has had rave reviews, and caused a sensation in Sweden and around the world. It is the first of a trilogy about a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who is asked by the elderly Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance 40 years earlier of his favourite niece, Harriet. Henrik is convinced that Harriet was murdered all those years ago and has collected a huge dossier on the case. The disappearance also haunts the police officer in charge at the time, Detective Superintendent Morell. Blumkvist is helped in the investigation by the strange and enigmatic, Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo of the title).
Sadly, the author, Stieg Larsson, an investigative journalist himself, died in rather mysterious circumstances of heart failure in 2004, before any of the books in the trilogy were published.
There was a mixed response from the group. Most people felt the book was too long, but even those people who don’t like particularly crime novels found it quite interesting. The point was made that although it is a “who-dun-it”, it is not a police story. Maureen & Frances are definitely
going to read the rest of the trilogy, Sue & Rob probably aren’t & Elinor isn’t sure(!)
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 24th Feb and we have agreed to meet up at the Punch Bowl at about 6.00 – a much warmer and congenial environment. Thanks to Angie for inviting us. We are continuing our theme of foreign crime novels with “The Paris Enigma” by Pablo de Santis. We then have one more novel following this theme, but need to plan ahead, so if you are coming to the meeting, please bring along some ideas for the next few books.
