The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

So many ppl have already read this book. My cousins discussed the books till I staged a walkout. Grrr.. After 6 loong months, numerous conversations that had: "Ya, I want to read tht book; No don't tell me the story; Can I borrow your copy?No? Well..; Do you have the first book? No- I do not want the third book;" - I finally picked up the PDF version of the book.

After a loong time, I came across a book where I wanted to know the ending and at the same time did not want the book to end. This book had all the ingredients of a thriller: suspense, an unsolved mystery, a detective who was actually a financial investigative journalist, the girl with the dragon tattoo. Even though the author had quite a few key characters: Blomkevist, Erika Berger, Wennerstorm, Lisbeth Solander, Henrik Vanger, and Harriet Vanger, each of them had a well-etched role. There are two tracks in this story: Blomkevist, while investigating a financial giant, Wennerstorm, publishes an article based on a "trust-worthy" source who disappears and he is charged with libel. As a result, he has to spend 3 months in jail and is fined a huge sum of money. The second track: Henrik Vanger, an ageing member of the Vanger Corporation wants someone to investigate the disappearance or possible murder of his niece, Harriet Vanger. Harriet, before she died, always presented him with a photo frame consisting of a flower. After her disappearance, Henrik continues to receives the photo frames on his birthday. He suspects the murderer of doing this act to make him crazy. He also suspects a member of his large family. The girl with the tattoo, Lisbeth, forms the connection between the tracks.

The book was engrossing, very difficult to put down, and a good read. However, I must point out that it is not a book for all. There is a fair amount of casual sex and quite a few explicit macho-sadistic scenarios. Some of them are scary, painful, and frankly quite disgusting. The author, is quite influenced by an incident that happened to him wen he was fourteen. He witnessed the gang rape of a young girl and was unable to help her.

I saw the movie too, but I rate the book a lot higher than the movie. In fact, I got bored while watching the movie. There are some changes from the book and I did not like the digressions that much.