Review: The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) by Stieg Larsson

SiriusB Reviews Category / Book Reviewsmystery / Sweden / thrillerNo Comments

The Industrialist

Henrik Vanger, head of the dynastic Vanger Corporation, is tormented by the loss of a child decades earlier and convinced that a member of his family has committed murder.The Journalist

Mikael Blomkvist delves deep into the Vangers’ past to uncover the truth behind the unsolved mystery. But someone else wants the past to remain a secret an will go to any lengths to keep it that way.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic, delinquent and dangerous security specialist, assists in the investigation. A genius computer hacker, she tolerates no restrictions placed upon her by individuals, society or the law.

Trigger warning: Rape, violence.

Review:

Dear readers,

Let me clarify something first. This was a reread, however this may have as well been a new read since I did not remember anything besides vaguely recalling that Lisbeth was awesome and that I liked Mikael as well, but the actual mystery plot? Not at all, which is why I patted myself on the back at some point when I figured out who the villain was. Nope, I did not remember it not even deep inside, but I think reading a lot of mysteries does make one tuned in to how the books in this genre often executed and the character which the writer tries to tell me is wonderful and should most likely be excluded from the list of the suspects… You get the drift.

I did not figure out all the horrid details about what was going on, but I knew that this character was most likely a villain. But let us back track. The main character, Mikael Blomkvist, is an economic journalist who seemed to devote his journalistic career to unmasking unscrupulous businessmen and at the beginning of the book it seems that Mikael bit off a bit more than he could chew in one of his investigations and he is convicted of slandering one such big bad businessman and eventually would have to serve three months in prison.

His conviction obviously causes problems for the independent magazine which he founded with a couple of other journalists and he thinks that he should step back from being one of the editors for a few months at least. And here Henrik Vanger from the blurb, steps in and asks Mikael to devote his free time to investigating a murder which he thinks was committed by someone in his family four decades ago. Mikael eventually accepts the job which, for the rest of Henrik’s family, is that Mikael is going to write the Vanger family chronicles, while trying to figure out the murder part more quietly.

Of course at some point we are introduced to Lisbeth who is probably one of my favorite book characters ever. I loved her (she would most likely smack you though if you will get too touchy feely with her).

So the plot without spoilers for the most part was very engaging. The book was 755 pages on my phone and I finished it in two days, although I think the “setting up the scene” could have been a little shorter. I also was surprised by the plot twist at the end even though as I said I figured out the main villain quite early.

Highly recommended.

Grade: B only because I really did not remember much after my first read so I wonder for how long it will stick with me this time.

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