The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

STIEG LASSSON

INTRODUCTION

I have to admit to being loathe to try books that get high critical praise.
I don't mean reviews on this website - I find readers reviews to be very interesting and I have read many a book from reader's recommendations and reviews. But so often in the past books that have been highly praised by the 'professional critic' have often left me very disappointed.

With this book I had heard much praise but somehow kept putting off reading it.

As you will gather from the fact that I am now writing a review on the book, I DID read it, and after a slow start I found it to be one of those compelling books that you can't put down.

AUTHOR

I won't bore you with his full life history; I will just tell you that "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is the first crime thriller in Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy". It was originally called "Män som hatar kvinnor" (Swedish for "Men who hate women,") before being translated to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Stieg Larsson was a Swedish writer and journalist and was active in the Communist party. He died at the age of 50, suddenly, of a heart attack in 2004.

PLOT

The book starts very slowly, as it goes into details of how a Swedish company is defrauding government funding to set up a fake business in Russia.
The slow start though soon picks up speed to a virtual gallup, as we go back fourty years when 16 year old Harriet Vanger disappeared off the family's private island. Despite there being no corpse, her uncle is convinced that a family member murdered her.

Forty years later and Mikael Blomqvist, in disgrace after losing a libel case arising from his reporting in his magazine 'Millennium'of afor mentioned financial scandal, is approached by Henrik Vanger to take on the investigation of the young woman's disappearance fourty years previously. It doesn't take Blomkvist long to link Harriets disappearance with a number of other murders that had taken place around the same time.

Blomkvist then joins forces with Lisbeth Salander.
Salander is a very strange character, she is a 24-year-old anorexic, bisexual young woman who has lots of body piercings and tattoos. She is a loner with a history of mental illness, a photographic memory and some clever computer hacking skills.

While investigating Harriet's disappearance, Blomkvist and Salander find associations between violent murders of other women. To solve her disappearance, Blomkvist needs to rummage through Vanger family secrets. The story leads both Blomkvist and Salander and the readers far outside Hedeby Island. It is on this journey that our duo uncover a far bigger and much more menacing mystery with vital implications.

WHAT DID I THINK

I have to admit to almost giving up on this book before I really started. The first few chapters were quite hard going as they delved into the financial implications and libel case.
When Blomkvist and Vanger meet though, the book explodes into a completely 'must read 'novel. My only problem here was getting used to all the'H' names (Henrik, Harald, Harriet etc) in the Vanger family, I got a little confused at times - but then it doesn't take much!!]

I loved the character of Lisbeth Salander; she was such an interesting character.
Lisbeth powers her way through the book, she is a man hater, after suffering sexual assault, she is has some major mental problems and is under guardianship due to her delinquent past, but she is a feisty little thing who won't give up like a dog with a bone.

This book just has to be the perfect crime thriller - an interesting story, twists and turns, wonderful characters and a book you don't want to end.
The only downsides I can find are rather petty, the slow, financial chapters at the beginning, (but I see the need for this) and I wonder just how good the translation was from Swedish to English and one more point - not a problem for me but I think it should be mentioned; if you are particularly bothered by violence against women, then you may want to stay away. The descriptions are fairly graphic, and they may be disturbing to some people.

It is just so sad that a potentially great crime-writers career was ended almost before it began.
I look forward to reading the next two novels - what a shame there won't be more.

"Summary: 4.5/5 from me ( mainly because of the first few chapters)"