Am I decade too late? It feels like it has taken a decade to read Larsson’s fêted Millennium Trilogy although, looking back I see that it was only toward the end of February this year that I made a start on the first one. Epic in ambition, they do feel overblown at points. Could you really hack secret service networks and download swathes of documents using a mobile phone and a Palm Pilot that was a generation below the one I used to carry around? I think I prefer the pseudo-science to be a little more down to earth or at least outside my field of expertise (playing with computers in general, I hasten to add, not cracking secure networks!)

I remember the day, many years ago, when I finally reached the last chapter of the last book of Lord of the Rings. I found myself reading slower and slower, not wanting it to end. By contrast, getting through the final Millennium book was an opportunity to dust off my speed reading skills. Unlike Tolkien’s work, I don’t anticipate I will be returning to savour Salander’s story time and time again.