pretty good. i listened to it and couldn't remember the minor characters. ( )

I first heard of this book from my Swedish step-father-in-law. I had asked him who his current favorite author was last August. Stieg Larsson's three books are very popular in Sweden. His second book is due to be published in U.S. this summer. Shortly after handing in the three manuscripts for his mysteries, he died.This was a very cool mystery about a disgraced journalist hired to investigate the disappearance of a young girl in the late sixties. The characters are all fully-realized, interesting individuals and story takes several interesting twists and turns. Curiously, the book's title in Sweden was Man Som Hatar Kvinnor which translates as The Man Who Hates Women. I like the English title better. Recommended for mystery-lovers. (There are a few Swedish words that are left in the text, but you'd guess their meaning from the context. Fröken is one example. It means Miss. And it may help to know that the suffix gatan means street.) ( )

I honestly have no idea why The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is such an international sensation. The mystery was easy to figure out, and there's all this extraneous detail about the investigator that just seemed like boring filler. And the eponymous "girl" is 1) a woman and 2) a standard male fantasy of the perfect heroine. And for some reason, every woman in the book throws herself at the protagonist, who has nothing interesting to recommend him. Yeah, pretty lame all around. ( )

I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson this morning, after ploughing through a huge chunk of it over the weekend whilst on the train to/from my parents’ house.

It was originally written in Swedish, and is the first part of a trilogy. Essentially, it’s a crime mystery, with some thriller aspects thrown in for good measure. Being relatively modern, it relies quite heavily on some technological features, with one of the main characters a hacker of quite extraordinary prowess.

The central mystery is well constructed, with enough twists and surprises to keep you guessing through to the end. Admittedly, there’s a couple of “handily placed” characters and coincidences, but then that’s always the way in any novel or film of this type.

What’s more interesting is the hacker character, who I understand becomes the focus of the second novel. She’s described more than once as anorexic and young-looking, but there’s a real fire to her actions. Larsson describes how she gradually opens herself up to other people, from being a completely aloof and deliberately isolated character at the beginning.

The writing style is pretty solid, frenetic at times but also measured in other places. It’s a real page-turner without being too simple (a la The Da Vinci Code), and certain set pieces are done fantastically well. ( )

I should admit I "listened" to this rather than read it and that I listened to the abridged version which I bought by accident. I liked it. It was perfect for the commute--mostly convincing and compelling plotting and more distinct characters than usual for this kind of book. There's a strong, young female character, though she is, of course, mostly a male fantasy of a strong, young female character. She ends up in love with the older male main character, and she ends up broken-hearted. The end pretty much lost its marbles, as most novels I've read do. It got oversized and unlikely and bloated, which often happens as everything swells toward that defining gesture. ( )