The landscape may be bleak, the weather cold and uninviting. But Scandinavian crime writing is hot at the moment and none more so than that of Stieg Larsson, celebrated author of the gripping Millennium Trilogy, which at last count had sold more than 27 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has captured the global imagination and that of Hollywood producers and is one of the most anticipated movie releases of the year with its Irish debut slated for December 27.

Starring Daniel Craig, as Swedish journalist Mikael Blomqvist and relative newcomer, Rooney Mara as punk, bisexual, computer hacker cum private investigator, Lisbeth Salander, the plot revolves around the hunt for Harriet Vanger of the powerful Vanger clan, who has disappeared years earlier. Her uncle, Henrik Vanger, a Swedish industrialist, is convinced that she was murdered by one of the family. It’s only when Salander discovers a link between Harriet’s disappearance and a series of murders some forty years earlier that the threads of the plot really come together. Read more