Holy thread revival.
Just been reading about crime fiction on a website and Stieg Larsson does not come out well at all. Interestingly, my Dad who reads lots of crime books agrees.
I quote:
"Stieg Larsson's
Salander books are boring and amateurish, they have an unusual protagonist with a great tattoo and nose studs and they come from Sweden which is this cool country most of us couldn't find on a map, so they must be the next big thing and we can't get enough of them. Just as well the author died, really, and couldn't write any more."
"the real criminals here are bloody Stieg Larsson and bloody Henning Mankell, who are on everyone's lips and don't deserve a fraction of the attention they've enjoyed. To be perfectly blunt, when you put their books alongside those of Ian Rankin or David Lawrence, they really aren't much good. "
"Larsson's powers of description are, frankly, laughable:
“The man went straight down into the tunnelbana station at Birger Jarlsgaten and bought a ticket at the gate. He waited on the southbound platform – the direction Salander was going anyway – and got on the Norsborg train. He got off at Slussen, changed to the green line towards Farsta, and got off again at Skanstull. From there he walked to Blomberg's Café on Götgaten.”"
"Riveting stuff, eh? It's as though you were really there. Not."
The same article does list lists writers he thinks are good as well. Dennis Lehane, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, David Lawrence, Reginald Hill and Christopher Brookmyre for instance.
Full article
here