"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" + ("Trade Wind", "Olivia & Jai")

[fiefoe]

Stieg Larsson took forever to get the story going.  Detective novels should really come with warning labels if they contain any mention of what kind of sandwich the protagonist makes himself for dinner.
The only line I found funny in the whole book was Blomkvist's internal dialogue:
"Martin was dafter than a syphilitic polecat-- where do I get there metaphors from."

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"Trade Wind" by M. M. Kaye and "Olivia & Jai" by Rebecca Ryman are both old-fashioned romantic sagas set in colonial trade ports. Both heroes are regarded as blackguards by the local Europeans, and both heroines are feisty American orphans. And there were the obligatory children born out of wedlock plot. Turns out that such books aren't my cup of tea.