Review for "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larson

We all have one. A family...the uncle who drinks too much at family reunions, the aunt that calls you cute and pinches your cheeks even when you're 22 years old, the cousin who got into trouble with the IRS, the selfish brother and the never-present father....the list is endless and different for each of us. But think darker.....think corruption, think kidnapping, think murder, think..... the horrifyingly unthinkable. Only then will you have a snapshot of some members of the Vangar family.

Mikael Blomkvist is a financial reporter, a crusading journalist who's out to get the bad guys in the gritty business world. But as the novel begins, he has just been convicted of libel against a wealthy businessman, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. There is much more to this theme of corruption than meets the eye. Under the pretext of writing a history of the Vangar family, Mikael is enticed by Henrik Vangar, an elderly and very wealthy CEO of the Vangar Corporation, to find his beloved neice, Harriet, who disappeared 40 years ago on their secluded island. But there is much more to the Vangar family than meets the eye. A missing girl, an unsolved mystery, brutal murders...they are all connected somehow and Mikael needs help to prove it. Who better for this job than Lisbeth Salander, the tatoo-wearing, multi-pierced genius hacker who possesses a photographic memory. There is much more to Lisbeth Salander than meets the eye.

I was on the edge of my seat with this book. It is filled with many twists along the way and the story is layered with more than one mystery to be solved. The author jumps quickly between scenes and builds the mystery and suspense wonderfully. It has mature themes that sometimes are hard to read, but belong in the story. Things happen to characters, especially Lisbeth, that make you want to cringe, but are all important in the making of each character, making them flawed and hence, more believable. Mikael and Salander, this unlikely duo, not only unveil terrifying events, but they also discover a deeper connection between them that surprises and unsettles them both. This book has something for everyone....corporate corruption, serial murders, twisted families, misogeny, the publishing business, Swedish history, sex, adultery....all of it woven expertly together in an intriguing tale. It is safe to say that I will be reading the next installment in this Millennium trilogy. I am hooked.