The Girl With The Dragon Tatto

This book caught my eye because it was translated from the Swedish. I have read many books written by Swedish authors and enjoy the experience of reading a book written by someone from a different culture, who speaks a different language. I like the spare, somewhat melancholy style of Swedish authors; the story usually set during a grey, cold, colorless winter, leaving the door open for lots of interesting contrast with characters and settings.

Anyway, this book was great. The best mystery I have read in awhile. Very nicely paced, the plot held my interest through 465 pages. If you can stomach a quite graphic rape scene, and the amorality of the main character (which I find to be a general trend in European novels, probably truthfully reflecting the surrounding culture, sad to say), you will find the book to be very engaging. The characters are well-fleshed out and true to life. Beyond the general lack of morality of the main character (he isn't evil, just not principled) the book is a clean novel. The story is multi-layered, complex and yet fluid and concise. I enjoyed the slow revealing of one of the principal characters, Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed, genius hacker, who plays side-kick to the main character, Mikael Blomkvist. Mikael is an ordinary journalist who inadvertently gets caught up in solving an old crime that leads to lots of other buried secrets and current scandals. It's a great plot, made more interesting as it is set against the backdrop of modern Sweden. From the Swedish financial districts to the small coastal towns, the different foods and customs, I enjoyed the "view" all along the way.

This book is the first of three books written by Stieg Larsson. To my dismay, the back of the book reports that Larsson, though a relatively young man, died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for these three books. Now I have some detective work to do, because I want to know how and why.