The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson

Title: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Steig Larrson
Year of Publication:2008
Category: Fiction

For the past year, I kept seeing this book everywhere! I saw posters in bookstores & libraries but I never knew what it was about & the tittle wasn't really catchy for me so I never bothered to read it. Then, one of my coworkers read the book and told me that I would enjoy reading it too.

When I started to read the book, I thought it was kind of boring. I wasn't able to get into it and I was already half way through the book--there were too many facts that seemed inconsequential and way too many names that I wasn't familiar with (this books takes place in Sweden and was originally written in Swedish). But, right when I was ready to give up, the book started to pick up and got interesting. I was so engrossed by the story that I ended up reading all three of the books within 3 weeks.

Story Line:
This series revolves around a petite young girl, Lisbeth Salandar, who, although declared incompetent by Swedish Authorities, is a computer Genius & hacker and works as a private investigator for Milton Security. There is an air of mystery surrounding Lisbeth as she has no friends and does not seem to want any. She gets pulled into an assignment for Mikael Bloomkvist who is investigating the murder/disappearance of a wealthy heiress to the Vanger Corporation. As the duo digs deeper into the mysterious event, their friendship evolves and we begin to learn some of Lisbeth's deep secrets. The Secrets continue to unfold in the consecutive novel and are finally brought to light in the 3rd book, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest".

The "Hornet's Nest" was the last book Steig Larrson completed before his untimely death. There is a forth (and I believe a final book) which Larrson never completed. According to his publisher, Larrson had completed the beginning and ending of the last novel but still had some minor plot lines to resolve. There's currently a legal battle between Larrson's estate and his partner over who own the right to the lasts novel. Hopefully that issue can get resolved soon & the book can be published posthumous so Larrson's fan can enjoy his very last book.

Recommendation:
If you enjoy reading thrillers and suspense novels which also contain personable and interesting characters, you would love this book.

For those of you not so gung-ho about reading suspense novels, there is a movie out for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". It is of low quality and in Swedish with English subtitles but it's worth a watch*. A Hollywood version is also in it's planning stages and Daniel Criag will be playing the main character, Mikael Bloomkvist.

WARNING:
Some parts of the books are quite disturbing and may make some people sick but they're not superfluous scenes to add sex appeals to the book--they're essential to the development and integrity of the story line. These scenes are also depicted in the movie.

Further Reading:
The Girl who Played with Fire
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.