The Wall Street Journal has some emails from Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and following popular crime novels. The author writes of his intention to work around the usual formalities of crime novels. Main characters are not from typical crime novel stock, and he didn’t want his serial killer offing anonymous people, so he spend time introducing minor characters. In real life, no one is completely anonymous. He also states:
A rule of thumb has been never to romanticize crime and criminals, nor to stereotype victims of crime. I base my serial murderer in book I on a composite of three authentic cases. Everything described in the book can be found in actual police investigations.
The description of the rape of Lisbeth Salander is based on an incident that actually took place in the Östermalm district of Stockholm three years ago. And so on.
Lars reviewed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo here, and the following book, The Girl Who Played With Fire in this post.
The email exemplifies what’s wrong with Dragon Tattoo — the author is so concerned with establishing his PC bona fides that he subordinates all plot and character attributes to his preening, or at least the preening of his POV character. Every evil in the world, and even every annoying tic of any character, somehow traces back to whether each character is appropriately appalled by hostility to women. The novel ends up being absolutely hidebound in convention; it’s just that it substitutes a smug conventionality about misogyny from the (generally more entertaining) conventions that have grown up around crime novels.