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Financial, Political Drama / Murder Mystery Detective Story

I finished reading the late Stieg Larrson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I have to say, it was pretty awesome and impossible to put down. The original Swedish title was Män som hatar kvinnor, “Men That Hate Women,” a far better and more appropriate title. Also, let’s be honest, the name  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is pretty lame. I think the name Men That Hate Women is also much better in setting the general tone for this book. Regardless..

This is a really complex novel that seems to be part finance, business, political, crime thriller, and does pretty well on all parts. I will try to give a brief overview of the book. The book opens with our hero, Michael Blomkvist, losing a libel case to an accused industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, putting his magazine at serious risk of collapsing. The disgraced journalist is hired by a wealthy old former industrialist, Henrik Vanger, who offers Blomkvist a huge sum to spend a year writing the Vanger family chronicle and attempting to solve the murder mystery of Vanger’s niece, Harriett of which there have been no developments in 40 years. The ensuing tale goes crazy.

That’s basically it. At times the language is a little clunky, I can’t tell if that’s the translator, Reg Keeland, to blame, or how Larrson intended it, and there are some almost masturbatory extended descriptions of Apple computers that seem a little bit unnecessary. Regardless, this is a super fun read and I’m sure you’ll tackle it within a week. There’s some messed up stuff in this book! Recommended reading. I will be reading the second one in the series after I get through some other books I have lined up.

By the way, their making a movie (actually made in Sweden, not a bastardized US version just yet), and I’m not sure what to make of it. As a movie, it looks a little bit corny… I feel like you can get away with more things in a novel, but once you start seeing them it’s a little meh…. but either way it looks interesting and I’m sure I’ll watch it at some point.