The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an award-winning crime novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his “Millennium Trilogy“. The other two being The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Before his death in November 2004, he left three unpublished novels that made up the trilogy. This book sold more than 3 million copies in Sweden alone and has been translated into several languages and became an international bestseller. Sadly Larsson did not live to see the phenomenal success of his books. Larsson wrote the books for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. He also left the unfinished manuscript of the fourth novel, and synopses of the fifth and sixth in the series, which was intended to contain an eventual total of ten books. It is a tragedy that we will never see those books.

I read the novel only a few months back, even though I had it with me for more than a year. Only when I got the last book of the trilogy, I was motivated enough to read the books and I started with the first of the series. I read about Stieg Larsson and was intrigued by a person who wrote three novels for pleasure without doing anything to get them published and was sad to know that he was unable to see the success of his books.

The primary characters in the Millennium Trilogy series are Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist is an investigative journalist, a celebrity in his own right. Slander is an intelligent, eccentric woman in her twenties with a photographic memory. She is a computer wizard and exceptionally brilliant computer hacker. But she has very limited social skills.

Mikael Blomkvist (the alter ego of the author) along with her classmate at journalism school Erika Berger, publishes the magazine called Millennium in Stockholm. In the opening courtroom drama, Blomkvist loses a libel case brought by accused Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and this has serious repercussions for the future of Millennium. To protect his magazine from the wrath of Wennerström he quits Millennium. He is hired by Henrik Vanger, the aged former CEO of the Vanger companies.

Mr. Vagner wants Blomkvist to solve an old case—the disappearance of Vagner’s great niece about 40 years ago when she was only sixteen. But to hide the real reason of his mission, he is given a cover story—he is spending a year writing the Vanger family history. In return to solving the case Vagner offers not only to help his financially strapped magazine, but also to give him information to prove that Wennerström is corrupt.

Henrik Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by one of his family members on the island. In addition, Harriet had given Henrik a present of pressed flowers every year since she was eight years old. On Henrik’s birthday the year after Harriet’s vanishing, he again received a present of pressed flowers, and he continued to receive such flowers, sent from various parts of the world, which he believes to be sent by the killer.

Blomkvist enlists the help of Lisbeth Slander to assist him in the investigation. They conducts a methodical and systematic investigation and find out many shocking and disturbing secrets about the Vanger family and finally unravels the 40 years old mystery. The rest of the story is how Blomkvist, with the help of Slander who put her computer hacking talent to full use, exposes the corruption and fraud of Wennerström and takes him down.

The book is very readable and I really enjoyed it. After the slow beginning the book picks pace and the various twists and turns keep you guessing. I recommend this book.

Book Details:

• Author: Stieg Larsson
• Publisher: Knopf
• Year: 2008
• ISBN: 9780307269751
• Cover & Page Count: Hardcover, 480 pages