dragonThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

From the dustjacket:

A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.

It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden…and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbath Salander, a twent-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age – and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it – who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism – and an unexpected connection between themselves.

My thoughts:

This book did start slowly, I’ll admit, and I had some trouble with the Swedish names and place at first. However, it had me hooked by the first 80-100 pages or so. The characters were interesting and intense, although I wouldn’t actually want to be friends with any of them. There were a lot of surprises throughout the story, events and solutions that I, at least, didn’t see coming. I devoured the second half in one sitting, that’s how much I was drawn into the story. The secrets in this novel are dark and deeply buried and there are several scenes that are not for the squeamish. That being said, I can’t wait to get my hands on The Girl who Played with Fire.

My rating: 4.5/5

A question:

This book started pretty slowly for me. How long do you give a book to grab you before you set it aside?

7 Comments

  • I give a book 25 pages. (I’m A.D.D.) I usually know by then if I’ll like the book or not. Now if it’s a book I’ve said I’d review, I give it a little bit longer before closing the door completely.

    That’s been my usual response. This year is different with the challenges. I’ve set books aside to read, so I am even more tolerant than before if I don’t have a back-up book.

  • I was just reading your more recent post about receiving The Girl Who Played with Fire, so I came here to see what you had to say about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. These don’t strike me as books I would like, but I keep hearing positive reviews, so perhaps I’ll give Larsson a try.

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