Stieg Larsson wrote only three of the long series of thrillers he planned before dying at 50 of a heart attack shortly before the publication of the first, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Now topping bestselling lists around the globe, they star Lisbeth Salander, a much-pierced and abused anorexic computer hacker of superhuman strength (think Pippi Longstocking on speed), and an investigative journalist who is dedicated to exposing corruption and runs a magazine called Millennium in order to publicise his revelations; as a result he is frequently the target of hitmen. Larsson knew what he was writing about; he was himself committed to exposing Swedish neo-Nazism, and had to live discreetly. The stories reveal much cutting-edge espionage, with more hair’s-breadth escapes than Tom and Jerry.

The third, The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (Quercus, 6 CDs, £16.98; Buy this book), is in truth a continuation of the second (The Girl Who Played with Fire); its plot is little more than the long-drawn-out retribution demanded by the first two books — with, of course, a last-minute escape or three thrown in. Gripping stuff from an informed source, and Martin Wenner’s nicely varied vocal characterisation on this abridged version is much better than the tediously slow articulation by Saul Reichlin of the unabridged (Whole Story) version. Even so, for the English listener the CD set could do with a cover cast list to clarify the unfamiliar Nordic names.

For those who enjoy novel audio techniques (and scaring themselves silly), Stephen King’s super-spooky The Mist (Hodder, 1 CD, £14.67; Buy this book) describes the mounting fear when an impenetrable fog full of monsters descends on a small American town. Recorded in “3-D sound”, it has to be heard on headphones to be fully appreciated. Don’t even think of putting it on in the car. Sadly the spectacular effects tail out with a downbeat whimper of an ending rather than one of King’s power-packed finales.

Listen to audio samples at timesonline.co.uk/books

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