By Nigel Powlson

STIEG Larsson has become the publishing phenomenon of the past five years with his Millennium trilogy of novels making him the second most read writer in the world during 2008.

But he never lived to see that success, having died in 2004, leaving the unpublished manuscripts of the book series that begins with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The film version of the best-seller now arrives in this country a year after becoming a massive hit in its native Scandinavia.

Michael Nyqvist stars as crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, whose career is ruined by a libel case that casts doubt on his integrity. But elderly businessman Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) offers him an investigative job that has baffled detectives for 40 years.

Vanger's niece mysteriously disappeared from the tycoon's family home on an island, even though the only bridge on or off was blocked at the time. Nothing has been heard of the girl since.

The clues have long since dried up but Mikael brings a fresh eye to the case and has the help of computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) who was originally assigned to check out his credentials.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is everything that the film version of The Da Vinci Code wasn't – an intricate puzzle that is unravelled with precision and plenty of tension.

The material also benefits immensely from not being Hollywoodised (there's an American version in the pipeline apparently). The film's Swedish sensibilities are very much evident – for example, an almost casual treatment of the sex and graphic violence that an American version would have watered down.

Rapace (the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo of the title) is also defiantly un-Hollywood in both looks and acting style.

She's an intense mix of vulnerability and a hardness born out of personal suffering.

Nyqvist, whose journalist character has echoes of Larsson's own life, is suitably stoic in the lesser of the two lead roles.

The Swedish backdrops, as icily essential to the story as Lisbeth, are also well captured in a brooding European style of photography.

Naturally, with any of these kind of mysteries you have to go with the flow and although vastly superior to Dan Brown, Larsson's plotting still doesn't stand up totally to acute analysis.

But this is still a superior thriller with a refreshing Europeanness.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

CERTIFICATE: 18

RUNNING TIME: 152 mins

STARTS: Today at Cinema De Lux and Quad in Derby.

RATING: 4/5