The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Book 1)

This is the first book of a trilogy. Crime/Thriller My rating: 7/10 Basically, you have a guy named Blomkvist running a magazine/journalistic company named Millennium; he hires an aloof, antisocial, secretive girl named Salander to work in his office and they develop a bit of a strange romance throughout the story.

Bear with the story line for a while, it will definitely pick up pace. Salander turns out to be a computer whizz, and very handy at digging up info on people they are reporting on; she’s had a rather unfortunate start in life, and the abuse she’s suffered seems to bring out bit of a sadistic side of her.

Blomkvist winds up working on a private investigation for an old wealthy man named Vanger. Vanger’s heartfelt wish is to discover the ‘truth’ about what happened to his missing niece, Harriet Vanger.

The police had searched and investigated her disappearance many years ago – reaching an inconclusive verdict, nobody seems to know what happened to Harriet.

Salander teams up with Blomkvist and together they unravel a very disturbing thread of Vanger family history, risking their own lives, and eventually discovering what really happened to Harriet.

Apparently the second book “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is even better than this first book so I’m keen to get reading it ( I have books 2 and 3 on standby). I wondered whether to buy the dvd for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo since I didn’t see it at the cinema.

On second thoughts, I don’t want to spoil the images I’ve already built up of characters, so I’ll wait until I’ve read all three books before watching the films.

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Book 2)

The story follows on loosely from book 1, ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’, you will understand each book a lot better if you read them in order.

Salander has been enjoying the financial fruits of her fraud, with extended holidays and traveling around the world at her leisure before returning home to Sweden.

Problems soon start for Salander, and she still harbors feelings for Blomkvist.

Millenium (Blomkvist’s team) are about to take on a seemingly big story around sex trafficking, intending to uncover some key players known to be engaged in and profiteering from the trade. A book deal and news coverage are planned, to catapult Millenium’s story into the media.

The cost of Millenium’s story proves far greater than anyone had anticipated.

Meanwhile, Bjurman (still Salander’s legal guardian) seemed to be seeking revenge to rid Salander from his life, given the power she still has over him from events that took place in book 1.

The story takes a very unexpected twist, causing Salander to lay low for a while; her background and childhood traumas are described in further detail, shedding more light onto her peculiar character.

Connections between seemingly unrelated characters will raise an eyebrow as the story unfolds.

Is Blomkvist too late to re-pay a life-saving favour…

Is this the end for Salander?

The Girl Who Kissed the Hornet’s Nest (Book 3)

So book three does not disappoint, the twists and turns in the story are certainly what makes this book a great thriller. It is true that Larsson does stretch the story quite a bit and at times it feels there is too much background in between key events, but this is a small price to pay for a great story.

I don’t want to give too much away but the suspense builds up to quite a grande finale.

I am torn about reading The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Largercrantz – book 4, as it was not written by Larsson and apparently not in line with what Larsson had drafted for book 4 (before he passed away). Book 4 has been at the centre of some controversy within the Larsson family (if you have followed the dispute somewhat). Nevertheless, I am curious to see how the Salander character develops from here….

There is no doubt that this series has been extremely successful, with book sales through the roof and plans are afoot to expand it even further.

Largercrantz has said we will see book five in 2017 and probably book six by 2019.