Cheryl R. (Spuddie) - , reviewed on 8/16/2009 + 412 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

#1 in the Milennium trilogy. Translated from Swedish and featuring journalist Mikael Blomkvist, middle-aged co-founder of Millennium magazine, and freelance investigator Lisbeth Salander, a pierced, tattooed twenty-something computer hacker with a definite antisocial bent. Blomkvist is convicted of libeling a billionaire financier and, intending to take a break is instead hired by Henrik Vanger, an octogenarian businessman to investigate the disappearance and probable murder of his niece Harriet decades previously. It's a locked-room mystery, as the Vangers lived on an island with but one access, and that was blocked by a tanker crash. Blomkvist is intrigued but not sure what he can come up with that the much-obsessed Vanger himself hasn't already considered.

To entice him, Vanger promises some juicy information about the billionaire that will vindicate Blomkvist's near-ruinous fine and prison sentence when he has completed his investigation. Reluctantly, Mikael agrees, but though he reviews hundreds and thousands of pages of documents and photographs, it isn't until midway through the book when Salander comes into the investigation that things begin to really move, and they realize they're onto something much more than the disappearance of one teenage girl thirty-odd years ago--something horrifying, grisly and on-going!

To be honest, I nearly gave up on this book by the time I got to my mandatory 50 page trial, and probably would have, had I not read from a number of people that it's a very slow starter. I'm glad I read it--it was a good, solid thriller with some interesting characters, but I can't say it came anywhere close to living up to all the raves and hype. Not only was the beginning slow, the writing throughout was rather meandering and tangential at times--could definitely have been tightened up a bit, though perhaps that was partly due to the translation. I also figured out two of the major plot twists/solutions well in advance. And the ending? That was sort of like an afterthought more than anything.

For me, as an American, even one of Swedish descent, it was also a little difficult to try to come to terms with all the various place names and cultural vagaries, but the author can't be faulted for that, since he's writing about his homeland for his countrymen. In short, it was certainly a good first book which I liked, and I will most definitely read on in the series, but this book suffered from "hypeitis" in that it in no way lived up to the high expectations I had for it.

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