Curse the Cassutt's!  They are pushers of great books!  So I blogged about The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo a few days ago.  Now I can talk about The Girl Who Played with Fire, the sequel.  I read it in, basically, a day.  I sat up until 11:00 pm to finish it and this was the night before I had to make the drive back to N.M.

I thought this one ended a bit abruptly, but it was edge of your seat, frantic page turning all the way to the end.  Not only does he create compelling mysteries, he created people I really cared about.  The good people are decent but flawed and even the bad guys have reasons for what they do.  They're complicated -- like real people.

He also had an amazing ability to switch POV, sometimes in the middle of a page, and not make me crazy.  It's a very hard thing to pull off, and he did it.  The only other writer I've seen who did it even more effortlessly was Georgette Heyer.

There were also a fairly large number of POV characters which I generally don't like.  That was one minor drawback to the book, but the story was so compelling I didn't find myself becoming irritated.

The third book isn't available in the U.S. yet, but the Cassutt's scored a British edition.  When I return to L.A. I hope they've finished reading so I can start the third one.

Alas there will be no more.  The author died at a very young age.  He was also one of the good people.  He kept track of right wing, and neo-Nazi movememts in Sweden, and exposed them.  I gather there were many threats and a great deal of stress, but he was determined to sound the alarm about these crazies.  Wish we had a greater awareness of that toxic thread in this country because it's on the rise.

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I've now seen six of the ten nominated pictures since we watched A Serious Man tonight.  I liked it.  I don't think it's one of the brother's best, but much better than Burn After Reading that movie I really hated.

Left to see -- The Blind Side, Inglorious Bastards, Precious, and The Hurt Locker.  I might not get all ten viewed before the ceremony.  And yes, I'll watch the telecast.  I'm a sucker for the glitz, and I can dream that someday I'll get to attend.  Maybe even as a nominee.  :)

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