This book was in the running for our mystery selection in October so it has been on my radar and I've seen it at Target for a while. The synopsis on BN says: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism—and an unexpected connection between themselves.
This book starts out a little too slow for my liking but eventually picks up. I really enjoyed the characters, especially Lisbeth. I wanted to know more about her and why she is the way she is. The novel can be a bit graphic at times when dealing with a murder scene and leaves you with some unanswered questions about motivation for the crime and Lisbeth, she's the biggest mystery to me. I'm hoping that The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second book in the trilogy, gives some answers and insight to Lisbeth. One side note, the author, Stieg Larsson, wrote all three books, turned in the manuscripts to the publisher, then died of a heart attack a few days later so he never saw his words published and to the acclaim they were received. I'll have this at the next book club to submit to the underground.
