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| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | 
 enlarge | Author: Stieg Larsson
Creator: Reg Keeland
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £2.50
You Save: £5.49 (69%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (49 reviews)
Sales Rank: 147
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 542
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 1847245455
EAN: 9781847245458
ASIN: 1847245455
Publication Date: July 24, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 An Idealistic Hero, an Unlikely Heroine, a Swedish Setting, Dangerous Secrets, and a Dandy Mystery Make for Great Fun November 26, 2008
To me, this book is the most unexpected page-turning thriller I've read in some time. I couldn't wait for the next surprise.
I was reminded of first reading the early Ian Fleming books about James Bond, feeling like I'd entered a fascinating new world that I never had never dreamed of. But Stieg Larsson's writing is much better than Fleming's and these characters are more nuanced in their unusual characteristics.
The book defies normal novel categories. There are such a major story lines about both the hero and heroine that the novel would be more than adequate just developing those ideas. The mystery of a young woman's disappearance is more than adequate to sustain the interest of anyone who likes books about amateur detectives. In the background, there are dark secrets about a not-so-desirable family that would intrigue anyone who likes to read family sagas. What's remarkable is that these threads are very neatly combined so that you get a lot of story for your time, money, and reading pleasure.
Investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist has a problem: He's written something that he can't prove and has been sued for criminal libel. His blunder costs him his savings, his reputation, and his freedom while threatening the survival of his publication. How will he and the magazine recover?
Lisbeth Salander wants her freedom and finds it hard to win. Although she's tremendously talented, her past holds secrets that pin her down much as Gulliver was by the tiny ropes of the Lilliputians.
Henrik Vanger wants to find out what happened to his grand niece, Harriet Vanger, who disappeared while an accident was being handled near her home. Can he persuade Blomkvist to help him?
There has been a search going on for Harriet Vanger for over forty years. What have they been overlooking?
What skeletons are hiding in the pro-Nazi closets of the older generation of the Vanger family? How do these skeletons affect the present?
You'll probably never meet a more unlikely detection team than Blomkvist and Salander. The unusual chemistry and motivation behind their joint efforts directs the story into many unexpected and interesting directions.
Stieg Larsson gives as much attention to his characters and their development as most mystery novelists do to their plots. As a result, you can relate to these characters quite well . . . as though you had already read ten books in which they interacted. He also takes the time to make these characters as unique as real people are, making them more vivid and rewarding to contemplate than the two-dimensional cutouts that serve as "characters" in most mystery novels.
His plot is also very fine: He usually doesn't telegraph what's coming next. People act as unpredictably as they do in real life . . . making the plot messy . . . as real life is messy.
I was delighted to learn that although Mr. Larsson has died that there are two more books coming. I can hardly wait!
impressive but flawed November 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Absorbing but too long and moralistic. The mystery is built up slowly and with masterful control but there are few surprizes and the solution, without wanting to give anything away, says more about the authors politics than anything internal to the plotting. Larsson was a talented writer but his passion for espousing the cause of the opposite sex might be more laudable if it weren't at the cost of selling out his own by portraying every male as either predatory or rehabilitated. As for the *** mild spoiler *** stories development into a hunt for a 'seven' like serial killer with a penchant for biblical quotations I agree with those who think this doesn't really work but I think there's a reason why the author took this path and that is to expose the hollowness of sadism. Nonetheless in terms of quality - and provided you can tolerate the financial journalism based subplot - this is vastly better than most thrillers you're likely to encounter.
Absolutely brilliant - it has everything and more November 9, 2008
I was recommended this author and started the book with an open mind but with some reservations. BUT it was brilliant - well written - not just a crime book, fascinating people and marvellous plot. I was really sold on this author only to find out that he only managed to write a few books before his untimely death - what a disappointment. The world was robbed of a truely good writer.....
A big juicy satisfying read November 8, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This a big, complex, entertaining read. There are three plots running in parallel which interlink with and complicate each other. This means the book has room for a classic detective story dealing with a decades old disappearance, and also strands delving into the complications in the lives of the two main characters - a financial journalist and the eponymous girl with the dragon tattoo.
I loved it, and am looking forward to publication of the second novel in the trilogy early next year. Recommended if you like a good mystery.
 Formulaic... October 10, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book has sold 5 million copies. What makes a book sell 5 million copies? Judging by this, the formula is: a fairly mainstream plot, some mild sex, a so-so conspiracy, and a style of writing that neither jars nor excites.
Let me first say that there is nothing actually wrong with this book. Aside from being much too long - common and acceptable in a first novel - there is nothing that will make you throw this book across a room. Nor, in my view, will you be riveted. It is like a three-part thriller on television, where you'll watch the final part if you happen to be in the room, but you wouldn't break a hot date to see it.
Larsson does a fair job of dissecting and explaining the `corporate fraud' part of the storyline, but the main problem is that this is simply a nebulous, almost victimless crime. He fails to bring it down to a human scale, and so robs it of any emotional value. Because of this, the story produces no drive or energy to push the other sub-plots forward. Thus, it sort of falls forward of its' own accord, without feeling like it has genuine momentum.
Some of the characters are cliches. The elderly patriarch, for example, has been done to death. The tattooed girl herself is actually the most interesting character, although less `enigmatic' than all the characters seem to believe. I did feel, though, that Larsson chickened out of making her genuinely dark, and she failed to impart a sense of foreboding that should have been there.
Is this a great thriller? No, it is not even close. It is a long, slightly rambling effort by an author who is finding his feet. On its' own merits, it is mediocre, and your money would be better spent on a dozen alternative authors. Thrillers about corporate fraud need to be brought down to a taut, human, emotional level, or they are simply exercises in writing essays. For me, Larsson fails to achieve the correct scale or emotional connection.
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