Fictional People Review Real Books

At 6.00 he took a shower. He boiled some potatoes and had open sandwiches of pickled herring in mustard sauce with chives and egg on a rickety table outside the cottage, facing the bridge. He poured himself a shot of aquavit and drank a toast to himself. After that he opened a crime novel by Val McDermid entitled The Mermaids Singing.

... He waited until 10.00 p.m. before he gave up and drove back to Norsjö, where he had a late dinner and then went to bed to read the denouement of Val McDermid's novel.

It was grisly.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson.

The reader is Mikael Blomqvist, and he is correct about the end of The Mermaids Singing.