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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Vintage Editorial Reviews
Source: Product Description
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
Source: Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Vintage Customer Reviews:
Average Rating: 4.0 (1741 reviews)
Rating: 4 (Cats go their own way) Was helpful to 25 from 29 votes
This is my first Larsson mystery and not my last. He's as sociologically interesting as Mankell and Indridasen, far more byzantine but less dark. I thought I knew the killer and where the body went half way through but was only close, as in horseshoes. Also, the hero is (compared with Kurt Wallander) in good shape athletically and is not deprived of appropriate sexual company. The weakness of the story is that the too-perfect feats of the anorexic, sociopathic super-woman are too often not at all believable, but this doesn't kill the effect, the book is a very good mystery. The ending has similarities with a modern Swedish fairy tale, 'När Maanen gick förbi' by Alfredson and Aahlin. Unfortunately, we cannot ask the author if he read that tale, he died young of a massive heart attack in 2004 after a life of work as an anti-racism, anti-fascism expert. the latter topic appears in this mystery.
This review is based on the Norwegian translation 'Menn som hater Kvinner'. The English title should have been "Men who hate women'.
Rating: 5 (This book is so addictive that it should come with a warning!) Was helpful to 13 from 16 votes
Yes, it's that good.
Journalist Mikael Blomquist is hired by a business tycoon to investigate what happened to his nice who vanished a long time ago. He teams up with hacker Lisbet Salander, who is a great character.
Imagine a story that diggs into the one family's darkest seacret. A story that makes twists and turns you wouldn't expect. And imagine a grown up Pippi Longstocking teaming up with journalist Blomquist to solve the mystery.
This is one of the best mystery books ever written. This is blockbuster material. Be patient through the first chapters, before the story really takes off. It will be well worth it!
Rating: 5 (Absolute must read for crime fans!) Was helpful to 6 from 9 votes
This is a multi-layered crime book that breaks several rules, all for the better. The title is a misnomer. The original title translates as "The Man Who Hated Women". It's complex, layered and endlessly engrossing. Every time you think it's coming to a conclusion, it moves to another rewarding track. It doesn't cheat but rewards the reader. Despite the book's relentlessly dark tone, the real sadness is in realizing that no more than the three books Stieg Larsson have written will be published. He died unexpectedly soon after submitting them to his publisher.
Rating: 5 (A Swedish whodunnit that will make you miss appointments) Was helpful to 24 from 30 votes
I bought this book because of its good reviews, because I love Sweden, and because I'd read about the sad and premature death of its author.
I don't often read mysteries, but this one had me hooked pretty quickly. You can't help being sorry that there will be no more new books from Larsson, but it's a relief to know there are two more books to come in this trilogy, because the characters he created are strong enough to carry that many and more. It's like having a wonderful first course and knowing there are still two to go.
Mikael Blomqvist is a complex protagonist, dogged, humane, flawed and sometimes insecure. His sidekick, the resourceful Lisbeth Salander, who hates to be compared to Pippi Longstocking (thereby making the comparison for us), is even more complicated. Personally, I liked her, and I'm intrigued to know more about her, which will hopefully happen in the next two books.
Plot-wise, this kept me guessing right to the end, with many satisfying twists and surprises. The writing is plain and unadorned, but with a story like this you really don't need lyricism.
All I can say is, I hope the translator is working fast on the sequels!
Rating: 5 (A tale that hits close to home....) Was helpful to 23 from 28 votes
I got all three books in the trilogy as a present,
and read them all in less than a week (in Swedish), a personal
record.
The first book is now available in English.
(The literal tranlation would have been "Men who Hate Women".)
The books are complete page-turners, the suspense
keeps building. The author's death prior to publication
may have contributed to some minor errors of fact and
of internal consistency, but this does not detract from
the readability.
The background portrayal of a school system
gone haywire and of a mental health system out of control,
both violationg people that don't quite fit in with the
Swedish way resounds with its plausibilty. I am left with
the impression that the author has first-hand experience
with the horrors of the former, if not necessarily the
latter.
Curiously, the author fails to draw the conclusion that
it is the welfare state itself that is the cause, he clearly
embraces it - but then, he is a dyed-in-the-wool Swede.
A piece of advice to the reader: It is helpful to have a
physical map of Sweden handy; with the exception of one
of the main locations (Hedeby, which exists only unrelatedly
in Denmark) all the towns are real.
The "Millenium" magazine featured in the books exists
in the real world as "EXPO", and Mikael Blomkvist is
clearly the author's alter ego. I believe that somebody
familiar with the "in crowd" in Stockholm will find several
matches between the fictitious characters in the trilogy
and real people.
Nils Andersson
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