“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” By: Stieg Larsson 465 pp. ($24.95)
-Mystery thriller.

Over the course of the book, Larsson gives us a look into Sweden’s darker side of rape, abuse, murder and suicide. Larsson also gives us a glimpse into the more morbid side of human nature and how far someone will go, when the function solely on desire. All these topics are indeed a commonality throughout the book to anyone with a weak stomach.

Henrik Vanger is an industrialist that hires a man by the name of Mikael Blomkvist, who was recently put under trial for shady libel charges, to investigate the disappearance of his daughter, Harriet Vanger. Vanger offers Blomkvist around $372,000 to take on the case for at least one year. The title of the book is not accredited to Harriet, but rather the other star girl of the book Lisbeth Salander. Salander is in her twenties and a computer hacker with an eidetic memory. She has, in her past, had some issues regarding sex and a lawyer tries to rape her. She then takes the side of Vanger and helps him try and find his daughter.

The case of Vanger’s missing daughter starts to run cold when Vanger realizes that Harriet’s case is probably connected to a previous case in the 1950’s and 1960’s, where various young women were killed. All this comes to realization when a mutilated and abused cat is left as a sort of message outside of Blomkvist’s house.


The book is littered with family members; this lends a hand to one of the downsides of the book. The reader finds himself or herself trying to memorize and sift through various cousins and distant relatives throughout the book. This is another downside to the book. The mystery of the “girl” is solved, but the premise of the book is sexual politics and the horrors of sexual abuse among women in Sweden. Every man in the book is a sexual deviant and enjoys abusing women in some way. Despite some minor downfalls, the book is fast paced after about page one hundred and does not stop from there. Eventually the mystery of the “girl” is solved and by the middle of the book. But Larsson leaves one hanging at the end. He introduces the beginning of the second book “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” And that book eventually leads into the third and final book of the series, “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” for those who cannot get enough of Stieg Larsson. It takes you on a thrill ride of mystery, sex and violence. There are also myriad of subplots that take you in depth on each character. This book is a definite read to anyone who is interested in mystery; it paves the path for mysteries to come.

Since even before the publishing of the book, Stieg Larsson has passed away from a heart attack. But the books eventually got published and have become a nationwide and worldwide bestseller.