Since we’ll be in Stockholm in a few months I thought I should read this book which is set there. I’ve seen this book on the shelves since forever so I guess it is about time to read it anyway.
Translated for Swedish (I guess) the story relates to the emergence of two characters who end up working together. One of them falls in love, another one doesn’t seem to notice. I liked both the main characters and their chemistry is really what made me like this book.
In addition the setting of the story was interesting, and I was marking off places to visit on Google maps as I read. The plot involves a long-ago disappearance – and there are some surprises hidden among a very large family of suspects.
Despite at first seeming to be a locked room mystery, the story branches out and we learn more about even some of the minor characters. I enjoyed this sort of divergence, even though I’ve criticized other novels for the same thing. I guess that done right it can be engrossing rather than a time waste.
The technology and the scenes involving it have aged a bit poorly I think. The author tends to overemphasize some details (to lend credibility?) but we don’t really need to know the brand name of the modem or how many megabytes the disk drive is. Is it a cultural thing? Not sure.
Also the idea of what a hacker does or can do is pretty oversimplified, and in this book it is sort of like a magic “do-whatever-you-want” card that can be played any time. Again, this might be related to the age of the book.
So I enjoyed the story and I’m wondering if I should see the movie or not. My next book is You Like it Darker by Stephen King.
