Actually, he died after he'd delivered the final edit to his publisher for all three books. Millenium was in no way left "unfinished" (leaving aside the story about a fourth book)
I knew he had handed in all three manuscripts right before he died, I did not know if it went through any kind of editorial process.
You're right, the ending sets up the next books. But you'll see, it's a bit more than that, the real story of the trilogy begins with that too. By the end you might rather wonder if it was necessary to spend a whole book with a stand-alone mystery just to set up the characters before getting to books 2-3. 
I read Pat's review of the second book after writing this, so I now have some idea of where the series is headed. I take it that you think that it was unnecessary to spend an entire book on a stand-alone mystery?
Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- 08/04/2010 10:22:04 PM
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My buddy actually mentioned this book to me a couple days ago.
- 09/04/2010 04:43:33 AM
632 Views
Re: My buddy actually mentioned this book to me a couple days ago.
- 09/04/2010 02:20:31 PM
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I really don't understand the need for a title change for the english version...
- 09/04/2010 03:34:29 PM
570 Views
I guess the found the title too provocative?
- 10/04/2010 02:46:26 AM
619 Views
The original swedish title means literally "Men who hate women" *NM*
- 10/04/2010 08:35:21 AM
322 Views
I did wonder about that past tense in the French titles - where does it come from? *NM*
- 10/04/2010 12:39:50 PM
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Although in the second book, the Dutch title is in the past tense as well. *NM*
- 10/04/2010 05:03:08 PM
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well, that is true for the second and third book in Swedish too. Not the first one, though. *NM*
- 10/04/2010 05:29:59 PM
233 Views
Re: I did wonder about that past tense in the French titles - where does it come from?
- 10/04/2010 09:59:25 PM
563 Views
Hm. A film by this title is coming to the student theater here. *NM*
- 10/04/2010 10:34:59 AM
253 Views