How It All Goes Down
Friday, December 20
- Meet Mikael Blomkvist, nickname Kalle Blomkvist. By the way, Kalle Blomkvist is the name of the junior detective in kids' books by Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi Longstocking fame).
- At the young age of 23, Blomkvist foils a gang of bank robbers the police couldn't catch. This case is the start of his career as a journalist and of the nickname.
- Right now (years later), Blomkvist is coming out of court. He's just been found guilty of publishing libelous material about a financier named Hans-Erik Wennerström.
- Blomkvist has to serve three months in jail and pay a fine of 150000 kronor (about $20,000).
- After answering questions from reporters, Blomkvist takes a bus to a café and listens to a news story about his conviction.
- Blomkvist is part-owner, as well as writer and publisher, of a magazine called Millennium.
- Blomkvist has never been convicted of a crime before. He fears his recent conviction will hurt the magazine. He's also afraid he might have to sell his Stockholm apartment to pay the fine.
- Blomkvist's old school friend Robert Lindberg gets Blomkvist interested in Wennerström eighteen months earlier.
- At that time, Lindberg tells Blomkvist that Wennerström is corrupt and that he might have stolen public funds.
- Since Blomkvist is a financial journalist who happens to investigate corrupt financial dealings, this is right up his alley. He begins looking into Wennerström.