September Books 7) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

This really is as gripping and un-put-downable as they say; a brilliant detective story set in contemporary Sweden, as an investigative journalist is asked to research a murder in a wealthy family from the mid-1960s, and recruits the eponymous girl as his partner. The plot is topped and tailed by a largely separate vendetta with an Evil Capitalist (as opposed to the old man who wants the 1960s mystery investigated and is a Good Capitalist). But apart from that I was captivated both by the central mystery, whose brutal nature only gradually becomes apparent – and the solution to the original murder took my breath away – and by Lisbeth, the hacker and investigator of the title, a damaged but super-competent heroine. Excellent reading.