I just completed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I decided to pick it up after reading Pat’s review of the book over on the Hotlist. Since at least one person here has expressed an interest in hearing my opinion on the book, I thought I would write a little review. The story involves a financial journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who has found himself in legal trouble following a story he wrote about a wealthy Swedish tycoon. In the tumultuous aftermath of the legal battle, Mikael is contracted to investigate the 40 year old mystery of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, niece of a retired Swedish industrialist. Also involved in the mystery is Lisbeth Salander, a 24 year old computer genius who is troubled by her own dark past.

The bulk of the story is told through the POV of either Blomkvist or Salander. However, the list of supporting characters is fairly broad and each helped to add depth to the story and/or fog to the mystery making it difficult to determine the truth. There were no major twists changing the scope of the over arcing story when least expected. This is not to say that the mystery is easily solved. I found myself considering several different possible plot resolutions and slowly modifying them as more information became available until it became clear which one was the correct theory. This is not a criticism of the story. I find that for each time plot twists are used effectively in a story, there are several other stories that attempt to utilize the device but come off random and contrived. The story managed to be reasonably straight forward and satisfying at the same time.

Sexual relationships are examined throughout the book, both consensual and abusive. It is interesting that some of the relationships presented in the story are not conventional, at least to my sensibilities. It adds a dynamic to the story that seems to be neither endorsed nor condemned by the author, only presented as an element that shapes the interactions of the characters. This allows the reader to consider some of the pros and cons of this kind of behavior. The abusive sexual content is somewhat graphic, but not more so than is necessary to give an adequate explanation for the actions of the characters.

The one complaint I have with the story is that it peaks around a hundred pages before the end of the book. The rest of the book mainly involves tying up loose ends to the setup story that begins the plot. It was slowly executed and tended to be a bit dry. While the resolution is desirable for preparing for the next installment of the trilogy, the fact that the major action plot has already hit its climax leaves the feeling that the story could have been paced better. Given the author's death at the time he began trying to get the novels published, it is possible that there was no time to brush up the story to make it flow better. I suppose it is also possible that he would have refused any attempts to modify the narrative from its original form.

All things being said, I really enjoyed the book. It is the first time in a while that I managed to move through a book in less than a week. I look forward to reading the next installment, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I'm including a link to Pat's review as well.