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.
This is a book I almost gave up. I listened to it on audio, and a few hours in I felt like I was still listening to background and set-up and was anxious for the story to get started. Thankfully, once it got rolling it was a snowball I couldn’t stop. Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are very interesting characters… very alike in some ways, polar opposites in others. I spent a great deal of time wondering how their stories would be tied together, and I wasn’t disappointed when they eventually were. The mystery of Harriet’s disappearance was also very interesting, and the whole story is nothing you would ever expect when the investigation begins. I just had a couple of problems with it… the author tends to refer to everyone by their last name, which is much harder for me to follow. For some reason, I just don’t remember last names as well as first names, so every time someone was mentioned that we hadn’t heard of in a while, I had to think for a minute about who they were talking about. Also, there’s a bit of a loose end with the Harriet investigation that I was expecting to be tied up that never was. I was expecting a small twist that never came.
Overall, I quite enjoyed this and look forward to reading the next two (assuming the third makes it through translation to English). The ending to this one was sad in a way I didn’t expect, and I’m anxious to see what it means for Blomkvist and Salander. If you start reading this and struggle a bit through the beginning, just stick it out… It gets so much better!
