Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant - and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattoed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot, and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves - and each other.
I'm torn between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. I've settled on four because 3 seems a little too harsh for me as the book is well written and I think 3 1/2 would be a better show of how much I enjoyed it.
The beginnning of the book was slow and it took a long while to get going. I really, really enjoyed the middle although it was a bit more gruesome than I expected. Had the book finished at the point where the truth was discovered about Harriet then it would have deserved 4 1/2 stars. Unfortunately, it carried on and went downhill. Once again it became slow and uninteresting.
Part of my dissapointment is due to the hype that's surrounded the book with the film and I just feel it didn't live up to my expectations.
