"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

It’s not often I stumble across a novel that’s all consuming. But the $6 Kindle pricing and rave reviews enticed me to jump on the Steig Larsson bandwagon this past week and I have to admit that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was a blast. 

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was Steig Larsson's first novelThings start slow as Larsson introduces us to the main characters – an embattled journalist, a disturbed computer hacker and an aging industrialist committed to solving a decades-old family mystery -- but the story quickly picks up steam and doesn’t let up, with twists and turns every few pages. The characters are so offbeat and richly detailed that it’s easy to see why Larsson’s books have become best sellers. There’s nothing cookie cutter in this mystery, which makes it stand out in a genre full of hackneyed storylines and sappy endings.

Larsson died a few years ago, shortly after “Dragon Tattoo” was released in his native Sweden (where most of the book is set). But before he died, Larsson completed a trilogy of mysteries based around the “Dragon Tattoo” characters. “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is a current best-seller and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is set for its U.S. release next spring. The reviews are consistently good, so I’m looking forward to tackling the second book over Christmas vacation when there’ll be time to immerse myself once again into the adventurous world of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.