The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first of three books, published posthumously (the author having sadly, and tragically passed away shortly after turning in the drafts to his publisher) and dubbed the Millennium trilogy. They have gone on to become international best-sellers and once you’ve cracked the spine of this particular novel, it’s not hard to see why.

The premise of the novel is straightforward: an investigative journalist, facing jail time for libel, is hired by an eccentric old man to investigate the disappearance of his niece some forty years earlier. During his investigations it becomes clear that someone does not want the mystery to be solved, and will go to any extreme to ensure as much.

Interweaved with this plot is another: that of the heroine of the novel, Lisbeth Salander – the girl with the dragon tattoo. It is this particular character that has justifiably received critical acclaim, being hailed as “the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years”. – Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Given the book’s original title in Swedish – which translates to “Men Who Hate Women” – and the late author’s predilection for raising awareness of tough issues, such as the exploitation of women in Sweden, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this book is dark. Whilst the depiction of the sexual violence perpetrated against women is not graphic by any means, it is not for the faint-hearted.

With that said, it is one of the most scintillating crime-thrillers I have read in a long time. Addictive and gripping, Larsson writes intellectually and realistically, which serves to raise the bar of crime fiction writing.

The characters are well and truly fleshed out and wholly believable. Larsson’s storytelling moves the plot along at a decent pace, leaving no room for idle dialogue or periods of inactivity. A remarkable feat considering the book isn’t shy about discussing modern Swedish society.

All in all, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is arguably one of the best début crime-thriller novels to emerge this past decade. I highly recommend you grab a copy for your bedside table.

In the meantime, I’ve already began on its sequel; ‘The Girl who Played with Fire’, and it’s already living up to its predecessor. Check back soon for a review.

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If you are just starting out in the freelance writing world and you are looking for a professional, easy to maintain Wordpress theme for your blog/portfolio then you need frugal. Read on to see why.

One of the biggest problems a freelancer faces when starting out is that of getting a blog up and running. It’s a question that comes up time and time again, “I need a blog to publish my work but I can’t afford to pay for a professional design”.

Enter the frugal theme which has quickly become my free Wordpress theme of choice.

What Is frugal

Simply put it’s a theme for Wordpress created by Eric Hamm with an emphasis on being clean and simple and it doesn’t fail to live up to those standards.

Indeed clean is probably the first thing you’ll notice about the frugal theme, clean but with a certain professional elegance.

As a professional blogger Eric knows how important it is to get a blog up and running as quickly as possible yet still maintain ease of customisation should the need arise. To this end he begins by offering two different versions of frugal, “custom logo” and “non-custom” logo.

The major difference between the two is that one contains a logo file that you can customise with your own design while the other doesn’t. You don’t even need to mess around with image dimensions as Eric has already provided the right sized canvas for you.

I should also point out that frugal also comes as a dark grey/bordered theme and a plain white/no border theme.

Easy To Customise

Under the hood Eric has made sure that the site is as easy as possible to customise. He has made great effort in formatting the style sheet into clearly labelled sections and while an understanding of CSS is required you won’t find an easier stylesheet to work with.

As if that’s not enough Eric also includes a free 29 page document detailing the basics of blogging and design. How many free WordPress themes can boast that?

See It In Action

I’ve used the theme for both a client site – Côr Curiad and my personal blog, Daily Aikido. It is also of course in use on the theme’s home page frugaltheme.com

Download the Theme

The entire theme comes as one package which you can download here

But Wait There’s More…

There’s a newsletter to sign up for and support forums for getting help with frugal and WordPress in general.

For those looking for more options and flexibility there is also a premium version available (review coming soon). Premium customers are also eligible for a discount on a custom theme design by Eric himself

All in all it’s a well put together package by Eric that is great for getting a clean, professional looking blog up and running in no time at all. Combined with the added flexibility of being able to upgrade as your budget allows there is no better WordPress theme currently available for the beginning freelancer.

Download the theme and check it out for yourself.

On Thursday I’ll take another look at frugal and show you some simple ways of customising the theme to your liking.

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This week’s Friday Roundup has been replaced by a review and as you can see, the subject is the Blogopolis Blueprint from Eric and Sean.

Before getting into the crux of the matter I should say that this product is not aimed at bloggers such as myself; i.e. those of us who have been blogging for a number of years. Having said that, I did pick up a number of useful tips along the way and it is always good to get back to basics once in a while. I’m also hoping that a different perspective will be valuable to the authors.

Overview

If you are a complete newcomer to blogging then this book is well worth a read. I couldn’t sum it up better than they have, “It contains practical advice and solid suggestions on ways to start a blogging career based on our experience as budding bloggers.”

At times it’s hard to believe that the two authors have been blogging for a very short time but it’s worth keeping in mind as they are themselves the living embodiment of ‘practice what you preach’.

This is not a technical, step-by-step, cut to the chase kind of book, it is a gentle introduction to the world of blogging. The rich conversational nature quickly draws you in and keeps you reading. But don’t be fooled like I did. This is not fluff.

So What do I Get For my Money?

As I said, I’ve been blogging for quite a while, 5 years to be exact and I’ve bought my fair share of info products. Suffice to say I’ve seen what works and I’ve deleted the rest. When I first came across the Blogopolis Blueprint I was genuinely worried for Eric and Sean.  The sample chapter I had received was not the way successful info-products were written and there was this bundled extra called “The Blueprint User’s Manual.”

I’ve written (and read) my fair share of user manuals and guides and I know from experience that if you need to write an user manual on how to use your user manual then something is amiss. Needless to say alarm bells were going off in my head.

Thankfully this isn’t the case with the Blogopolis Blueprint. What Eric and Sean have done, quite successfully I might add, is to create a workbook to accompany your reading of “The Blueprint”. It contains a series of tasks and questions aimed at improving your learning and understanding. I do believe we’re seeing Sean’s experience as a teacher at work here.

Could they have have combined both into one main product? Yes and it probably would have worked too. It is a testament to “The Blueprint” however that it can stand on its own merit and still teach the would-be-bloggers out there.

You also get a “Blog Boot Up Guide” which is a short manual on launching your blog that covers things like picking a topic and domain name right through to selecting a theme and which plugins to install.

Last but not least Eric has surfed the Internet and compiled an extensive (I lost count after 100) list of bookmarks for the aspiring blogger. He hasn’t just collected them either, he’s gone and organised them under categories and exported them into a HTML file that you can easily import into Firefox or Safari.

Yeah But Nothing’s Perfect

The style in which it is written will exclude a number of people that may otherwise find the Blueprint useful but any info-product I’ve seen which tries to cater to everyone has been doomed to failure anyway. I would suggest they rename the User Manual to Workbook or similar but this is the key point:

For Eric and Sean, honesty and integrity are a way of life so if you’re still not sure if the book is for you just ask them, I did. The answer I got? No it isn’t.

All in all it is  a very decent product from two men who have only recently moved in to the blogopolis. Go give them a warm welcome and grab your own copy today.

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