Buy new:

$4.33

List Price: $7.99

Save: $3.66 (46%)

$4.29 delivery July 11 - 13. Details

Or fastest delivery Thursday, July 7. Order within 9 hrs. Details

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

[{"displayPrice":"$4.33","priceAmount":4.33,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"4","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"33","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"chJj%2FNpaJ%2BuUzWT%2F5RU290tGQbaMoXIAP%2Fv3r8vUDgM%2Fbqesm0uUhX0IpRTRK%2BWwnONvOKZ0kA2DoYZLsKBIKgPIceYM6rdGH7aKYuUoOFll8nuzsfmm3mbj%2FPpcNnVUM4v5bOSmxjlbIUfClg2LyQ7bl804wgNO1%2BKoEpTMIkWyYvwG9M749g%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"}]

$$4.33 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

bgkirk

Sold by

bgkirk

Details

Ships from

bgkirk

Sold by

bgkirk

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Share <Embed>

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$3.95
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: WeCareBookstore

Added

Not added

$4.99
+ $3.33 shipping

Sold by: Totem Books | Vinyl | Cafe

Added

Not added

$9.99
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: silkybooks

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium) Mass Market Paperback – Box set, June 23, 2009

by Stieg Larsson (Author), Reg Keeland (Translator)

14,910 ratings

Book 1 of 6: Millennium

Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$4.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover, Deckle Edge

"Please retry"

$30.00

$29.00

$1.77

Paperback

"Please retry"

$13.63

$12.74

—

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$9.99

$4.47

$1.07

Mass Market Paperback, Box set, June 23, 2009

$4.33

$1.89

$0.01

Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$13.92

$19.79

$1.58

Enhance your purchase

An International Bestselling Sensation A murder mystery, family saga, love story, and a tale of financial intrigue wrapped into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

Print length

644 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

June 23, 2009
Dimensions

4.18 x 1.4 x 6.89 inches
ISBN-10

0307473473
ISBN-13

978-0307473479
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Stieg Larsson Mass Market Paperback
$3.95
Get it Jul 14 - 19 $3.99 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by WeCareBookstore.
by Stieg Larsson Mass Market Paperback
$8.49
Get it as soon as Monday, Jul 11 FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
by Stieg Larsson Mass Market Paperback
$7.99
Get it as soon as Monday, Jul 11 FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Stieg Larsson
10,317
Mass Market Paperback
290 offers from $0.99
Stieg Larsson
10,710
Mass Market Paperback
170 offers from $1.30
David Lagercrantz
18,299
Paperback
173 offers from $1.07
David Lagercrantz
9,622
Paperback
137 offers from $1.49
David Lagercrantz
9,912
Paperback
115 offers from $1.89
322
Paperback
20 offers from $14.00

Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

“Friendship—my definition—is built on two things,” he said. “Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.”
Highlighted by 2,992 Kindle readers
What she had realised was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.
Highlighted by 1,912 Kindle readers
ARMAGEDDON WAS YESTERDAY—TODAY WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM.
Highlighted by 1,186 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Wildly suspenseful . . . an intelligent, ingeniously plotted, utterly engrossing thriller.”
—The Washington Post

“I doubt you will read a better book this year.”
—Val McDermid

“Mesmerizing. . . . Imagine the movies of Ingmar Bergman crossed with Thomas Harris's novel The Silence of the Lambs.”
—USA Today

“A blazing literary sensation [this] dark-hearted thriller . . . is now poised to burn up bestseller lists in America.”
—Vanity Fair

“Unique and fascinating. . . . It's like a blast of cold, fresh air to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
—Chicago Tribune

“A super-smart amalgam of the corporate corruption tale, legal thriller and dysfunctional-family psychological suspense story.”
—Fresh Air (NPR)

“As vivid as bloodstains on snow—and a perfect one-volume introduction to the unique strengths of Scandinavian crime fiction.” —Lee Child

“Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson’s first novel.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“A whip-smart heroine and a hunky guy who needs her help? This sexy, addictive thriller is everything you never knew you could get from a crime novel.”
—Glamour

“So much more than a thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a dazzling novel of big ideas. It tackles issues of power, corruption, justice, and innocence–all the while drawing you into the twists and turns of a frighteningly suspenseful mystery.”
—Harlan Coben

“An exceptional effort for a first-time crime novelist. In fact, a fine effort for any crime novelist . . . This book is meticulously plotted, beautifully paced, and features a cast of two indelible sleuths and many juicy suspects.”
—Boston Globe

“The book lands in the United States as Wall Street sputters and global markets clench, a timely fit to Larsson’s themes of corporate corruption. He tells his crime story cleverly, but the zing in Dragon Tattoois inked in its two central characters.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Larsson’s novel could serve as the definition of page-turner . . . The worst part: We have to wait until summer ’09 for the second installment.”
—Time Out New York

“The biggest Swedish phenom since ABBA.”
—People

“Larsson’s debut thriller succeeds on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. First off, it’s an absolute page-turner. But the characters are so fascinating and the clear, understated writing so graceful, you are going to want to savor it . . . Electrifying.”
—Portsmouth Herald (NH)

“Is the hype justified? Yes . . . This complex, multilayered tale grabs the reader from the first page.”
—Library Journal (starred)

“The first U.S. appearance of another major Swedish crime writer is cause for celebration . . . The novel offers compelling chunks of investigative journalism, high-tech sleuthing, and psychosexual drama. What a shame that we only have three books in which to watch the charismatic Lisbeth Salander take on the world!”
—Booklist

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoois a striking novel. Just when I was thinking there wasn't anything new on the horizon, along comes Stieg Larsson with this wonderfully unique story. I was completely absorbed.”
—Michael Connelly

“Dark, labyrinthine, smart, sexy, utterly original, and completely captivating, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo delights at every level. Nuanced, sympathetic characters, caught in a tangle of unusual and compelling relationships, grapple with a baffling family mystery and with their own demons in the unique literary environment of modern-day Sweden. This book is artful and grand entertainment. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.”
—John Lescroart

“As vivid as bloodstains on snow.”
—Lee Child

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an utterly fresh political and journalistic thriller that is also intimate and moral. In spite of its dark unearthings Stieg Larsson has written a feast of a book, with central characters you will not forget.”
—Michael Ondaatje

“Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family’s remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller . . . At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden’s dirty not-so-little secrets, this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“What a cracking novel! I haven’t read such a stunning thriller debut for years. The way Larsson interweaves his two stories had me in thrall from beginning to end. Brilliantly written and totally gripping.”
—Minette Walters

“With its compelling situation, its complex plot and especially its unique, fully-realized characters, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo embodies–in seamless translation–the best of European crime fiction.”
—S.J. Rozan

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a Tolstoyan re-invention of the ‘closed room’ murder mystery, Agatha Christie for adults. Curl up on the sofa with this masterwork of noir and let Stieg Larsson draw you into the shadows. It’s also a profound investigation into tribal violence in the world of high finance, and a revelation of the dark side of a country normally seen as the very height of propriety. By the end of the first chapter you will know better. By the end of the second you will be putty in his hands. Don’t even think about putting it down.”
—John Burdett

From the UK:

“Crime fiction has seldom needed to salute and mourn such a stellar talent as Larsson’s in the same breath.”
—The Sunday Times

“Larsson has up his sleeve two extremely engaging protagonists. Once these characters have appeared, our surrender to the novel is guaranteed . . . This is classic English mystery territory. But what follows is much darker and bloodier–more Thomas Harris than Dorothy L. Sayers.”
—The Independent

“The ballyhoo is fully justified . . . The novel scores on every front–character, story, atmosphere, and the translation.”
—The Times

“This is a striking novel, full of passion, an evocative sense of place and subtle insights into venal, corrupt minds . . . The journalist and the hacker are ingenious creations.”
—The Observer

“One of the greatest crime-fiction novels I have ever read . . . As mesmerizing as it is insightful. . . The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a multi-layered, multi-character tale by a writer of some considerable power. Full of social conscience and compassion, with insight into the nature of moral corruption, it knocked me out . . . Mikael Blomkvist and his partner, the enigmatic and deeply troubled Lisbeth Salander, will soon join the pantheon of greatest crime-fiction characters that populate the genre at its apex.”
—Shots Magazine

“A blockbuster story . . . The plot is interesting and credible but above all the heroine is splendidly original . . . An extraordinary book.”
—Literary Review

“An absorbing and idiosyncratic crime novel.”
—Daily Mail

About the Author

Stieg Larsson was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo. He was a leading expert on anti-democratic, right-wing extremist organizations. He died in 2004, soon after delivering the manuscripts of the novels The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Friday in NovemberIt happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dalarna. They were not only the same age, they had been born on the same day–which was something of an irony under the circumstances. The old policeman was sitting with his coffee, waiting, expecting the call.“It arrived.”“What is it this year?”“I don’t know what kind it is. I’ll have to get someone to tell me what it is. It’s white.”“No letter, I suppose.”“Just the flower. The frame is the same kind as last year. One of those do-it-yourself ones.”“Postmark?”“Stockholm.”“Handwriting?”“Same as always, all in capitals. Upright, neat lettering.”With that, the subject was exhausted, and not another word was exchanged for almost a minute. The retired policeman leaned back in his kitchen chair and drew on his pipe. He knew he was no longer expected to come up with a pithy comment or any sharp question which would shed a new light on the case. Those days had long since passed, and the exchange between the two men seemed like a ritual attaching to a mystery which no-one else in the whole world had the least interest in unravelling.The Latin name was Leptospermum (Myrtaceae) rubinette. It was a plant about ten centimetres high with small, heather-like foliage and a white flower with five petals about two centimetres across.The plant was native to the Australian bush and uplands, where it was to be found among tussocks of grass. There it was called Desert Snow. Someone at the botanical gardens in Uppsala would later confirm that it was a plant seldom cultivated in Sweden. The botanist wrote in her report that it was related to the tea tree and that it was sometimes confused with its more common cousin Leptospermum scoparium, which grew in abundance in New Zealand. What distinguished them, she pointed out, was that rubinette had a small number of microscopic pink dots at the tips of the petals, giving the flower a faint pinkish tinge.Rubinette was altogether an unpretentious flower. It had no known medicinal properties, and it could not induce hallucinatory experiences. It was neither edible, nor had a use in the manufacture of plant dyes. On the other hand, the aboriginal people of Australia regarded as sacred the region and the flora around Ayers Rock.The botanist said that she herself had never seen one before, but after consulting her colleagues she was to report that attempts had been made to introduce the plant at a nursery in Göteborg, and that it might, of course, be cultivated by amateur botanists. It was difficult to grow in Sweden because it thrived in a dry climate and had to remain indoors half of the year. It would not thrive in calcareous soil and it had to be watered from below. It needed pampering.The fact of its being so rare a flower ought to have made it easier to trace the source of this particular specimen, but in practice it was an impossible task. There was no registry to look it up in, no licences to explore. Anywhere from a handful to a few hundred enthusiasts could have had access to seeds or plants. And those could have changed hands between friends or been bought by mail order from anywhere in Europe, anywhere in the Antipodes.But it was only one in the series of mystifying flowers that each year arrived by post on the first day of November. They were always beautiful and for the most part rare flowers, always pressed, mounted on watercolour paper in a simple frame measuring 15cm by 28cm.The strange story of the flowers had never been reported in the press; only a very few people knew of it. Thirty years ago the regular arrival of the flower was the object of much scrutiny–at the National Forensic Laboratory, among fingerprint experts, graphologists, criminal investigators, and one or two relatives and friends of the recipient. Now the actors in the drama were but three: the elderly birthday boy, the retired police detective, and the person who had posted the flower. The first two at least had reached such an age that the group of interested parties would soon be further diminished.The policeman was a hardened veteran. He would never forget his first case, in which he had had to take into custody a violent and appallingly drunk worker at an electrical substation before he caused others harm. During his career he had brought in poachers, wife beaters, con men, car thieves, and drunk drivers. He had dealt with burglars, drug dealers, rapists, and one deranged bomber. He had been involved in nine murder or manslaughter cases. In five of these the murderer had called the police himself and, full of remorse, confessed to having killed his wife or brother or some other relative. Two others were solved within a few days. Another required the assistance of the National Criminal Police and took two years.The ninth case was solved to the police’s satisfaction, which is to say that they knew who the murderer was, but because the evidence was so insubstantial the public prosecutor decided not to proceed with the case. To the detective superintendent’s dismay, the statute of limitations eventually put an end to the matter. But all in all he could look back on an impressive career.He was anything but pleased.For the detective, the “Case of the Pressed Flowers” had been nagging at him for years–his last, unsolved and frustrating case. The situation was doubly absurd because after spending literally thousands of hours brooding, on duty and off, he could not say beyond doubt that a crime had indeed been committed.The two men knew that whoever had mounted the flowers would have worn gloves, that there would be no fingerprints on the frame or the glass. The frame could have been bought in camera shops or stationery stores the world over. There was, quite simply, no lead to follow. Most often the parcel was posted in Stockholm, but three times from London, twice from Paris, twice from Copenhagen, once from Madrid, once from Bonn, and once from Pensacola, Florida. The detective superintendent had had to look it up in an atlas.After putting down the telephone the eighty-two-year-old birthday boy sat for a long time looking at the pretty but meaningless flower whose name he did not yet know. Then he looked up at the wall above his desk. There hung forty-three pressed flowers in their frames. Four rows of ten, and one at the bottom with four. In the top row one was missing from the ninth slot. Desert Snow would be number forty-four.Without warning he began to weep. He surprised himself with this sudden burst of emotion after almost forty years.Friday, December 20 The trial was irretrievably over; everything that could be said had been said, but he had never doubted that he would lose. The written verdict was handed down at 10:00 on Friday morning, and all that remained was a summing up from the reporters waiting in the corridor outside the district court. Carl Mikael Blomkvist saw them through the doorway and slowed his step. He had no wish to discuss the verdict, but questions were unavoidable, and he—of all people—knew that they had to be asked and answered. This is how it is to be a criminal, he thought. On the other side of the microphone. He straightened up and tried to smile. The reporters gave him friendly, almost embarrassed greetings. "Let's see . . . Aftonbladet, Expressen, TT wire service, TV4, and . . . where are you from? . . . ah yes, Dagens Nyheter. I must be a celebrity," Blomkvist said. "Give us a sound bite, Kalle Blomkvist." It was a reporter from one of the evening papers. Blomkvist, hearing the nickname, forced himself as always not to roll his eyes. Once, when he was twenty-three and had just started his first summer job as a journalist, Blomkvist had chanced upon a gang which had pulled off five bank robberies over the past two years. There was no doubt that it was the same gang in every instance. Their trademark was to hold up two banks at a time with military precision. They wore masks from Disney World, so inevitably police logic dubbed them the Donald Duck Gang. The newspapers renamed them the Bear Gang, which sounded more sinister, more appropriate to the fact that on two occasions they had recklessly fired warning shots and threatened curious passersby. Their sixth outing was at a bank in Östergötland at the height of the holiday season. A reporter from the local radio station happened to be in the bank at the time. As soon as the robbers were gone he went to a public telephone and dictated his story for live broadcast. Blomkvist was spending several days with a girlfriend at her parents' summer cabin near Katrineholm. Exactly why he made the connection he could not explain, even to the police, but as he was listening to the news report he remembered a group of four men in a summer cabin a few hundred feet down the road. He had seen them playing badminton out in the yard: four blond, athletic types in shorts with their shirts off. They were obviously bodybuilders, and there had been something about them that had made him look twice—maybe it was because the game was being played in blazing sunshine with what he recognised as intensely focused energy. There had been no good reason to suspect them of being the bank robbers, but nevertheless he had gone to a hill overlooking their cabin. It seemed empty. It was about forty minutes before a Volvo drove up and parked in the yard. The young men got out, in a hurry, and were each carrying a sports bag, so they might have been doing nothing more than coming back from a swim. But one of them returned to the car and took out from the boot something which he hurriedly covered with his jacket. Even from Blomkvist's relatively distant observa...

Start reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Series Book 1) on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (June 23, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 644 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307473473
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307473479
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.18 x 1.4 x 6.89 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #838,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #89,664 in Mysteries (Books)
- #98,912 in Thrillers & Suspense (Books)

Customer Reviews:
14,910 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stieg Larsson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Stieg Larsson, who lived in Sweden, was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Expo and a leading expert on anti-democratic, right-wing extremist, and Nazi organizations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Customer reviews

5 star		71%
4 star		18%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Franklin the Mouse

The Odd Couple

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

When ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ was first released in the United States it seemed to me that anyone with a heartbeat was reading or had read the thing. The 2005 Swedish book was released in 2008 in the United States and I bought a copy but only opened it in 2020. I never saw either the Swedish or American movie versions of the novel. The closest I come to sporting a tattoo are the nascent brown liver spots on my aging body. This book review is from the perspective of a near-sixty-year-old, pasty-white, bald unhip old turnip.

The two main protagonists are Mikael Blomkvist, a 42-year-old reporter whose professional reputation has imploded, and Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year-old who’s an understandably troubled gifted computer hacker. The author describes Salander as “an information junkie with a delinquent child’s take on morals and ethics.” She is the most interesting eccentric character in the novel, but the mystery also has a handful of other compelling people. The stories about Blomkvist and Salander move along on independent lines until they meet a little more than half way through the book. Part of what kept me interested was curiosity in how these two unalike people would eventually get together. The mystery revolves around the disappearance of a 17-year-old female named Harriet Vanger which happen nearly forty-years ago. The novel has some unsettling scenes, especially involving sexual assault. Speaking as an American with New England sensibilities, I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or unique to this Swedish storyline but the characters in the book have a very casual attitude about hooking up with sexual partners. Outside of the sexual assaults the hook-ups are not graphic in detail. There is a healthy dose of profanity in the book. The book also includes two maps and a Vanger family-tree breakdown which were very helpful.

At no point did I become bored with ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’ There is also another plot line that is set aside until the conclusion of the mystery. I especially liked how Mr. Larsson includes the difficulties of having to make moral compromises and living with the consequences. It was an engaging mystery with a handful of disturbing scenes. If you find any of the deranged episodes a turn-on, maybe you should look into having a lobotomy. The novel ties up the two main storylines but leaves the social dynamics between Blomkvist and Salander somewhat up in the air in an effort to get the reader to read the next installment ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire.’ I sure will.

58 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bo

SO GOOD!

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

I'm not done reading this book yet, but here's my feelings so far about it. There are plenty of sweedish words I don't understand, but I skip over them and can still understand what they are referring to easily. The first 7 chapters are a bit difficult to understand because they are setting the scene for the bigger plot but there are two maps and a family tree included for reference. Once you get to chapter 8 things get interesting and exciting. This book is extremely well written with interesting characters, subplots, and relationships. It has little swearing so far (some big swears) and no blatantly sexual scenes yet. The characters sleep around but that's to be expected with family intruge and murder. It never goes into detail. It started out as an industrial mystery but quickly turned into more of a domestic mystery which made me happy. I prefer family drama compared to corporate drama. Nazis, drugs, and social services are mentioned along with darker subjects that add grit to the story and believability. I'll let you know how it goes later on. :)

Halfway: I'm through half of the book and I can't bear to put it down. This is so well written and suspensful. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying this book. There were some graphic sexual scenes but nothing terribly horrific and it was all necessary to the plot. Anyways, such a good read so far and the plot is picking up fast! Absolutely worth my time and money so far!

Finished: I have to say I'm a little torn with this book. I wish the main plot had ended differently. The sub plot was ok but not as interesting. The ending was still really good and wrapped everything up well. The main mystery was scary, thrilling, and serious. I loved reading the entire book and at no point was bored or disinterested. This author truly is amazingly good at writing thrillers.
Note: the second and third book SUCK. Too mush blantent sex, lesbian sex, no plot, super slow, too many details, doesn't feel like this authors writing. The entire beginning doesn't matter to the rest of the book. I would stop at the first book or the characters will be ruined for you.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

C Orr

I couldn’t put this one down!

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book, originally written in Swedish under the title Män som hatar kvinnor (lit. ‘Men Who Hate Women’), is a psychological thriller that tells of a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who is hired by a wealthy businessman named Henrik Vanger to solve the decades-old murder of his niece. The story alternates between Mikael’s point of view and that of Lisbeth Salander, a young, troubled woman who is a ward of the state and also a brilliant freelance researcher and computer hacker. Their stories eventually intertwine as Mikael discovers that Lisbeth has investigated him and dug into his personal life.

The book makes a lot of commentary on issues in Sweden, including residual Nazism, violence against women, ethics in journalism, and the question of the extent to which a person’s upbringing affects their responsibility for their actions. I feel like the author succeeded in bringing these issues to the forefront in the novel. At the same time, the novel contains a “locked-room mystery” that is engaging and kept me thinking of the book throughout the day and wanting to read more. The book is rather lengthy, but I never felt like any of it was superfluous. There are some graphic sexual and violent scenes in the book, so if that bothers you, you might want to pass on this one. Otherwise, if you like psychological thrillers and mysteries, this is an extremely well-written, and, as far as I can tell, well-translated novel that I highly recommend.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Jonathan Fryer

A gripping page-turner full of shocks and surprises

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

I watched the film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the original Swedish version, directed by Niels Arden Oplev) late at night, sitting on the top deck of a cruise ship that was traveling from Accra to Cape Town. The film was projected onto a screen under a star-spangled sky and there was only one other person present, a lady of a certain age, who got up and left hurriedly when the Lisbeth Salander (the girl of the title) launched a particularly calculated and sadistic attack on her sexually exploitative guardian. The film was so brilliant that I was nervous of reading the book, but now I have I acknowledge that it is even richer, more complex, more troubling. It would be the first of what author Stieg Larsson intended to be a whole series of novels, though he died prematurely after completing only three, published posthumously. So he never knew what critical acclaim he would receive -- deservedly so, on the basis of this gripping page-turner, where shocks and surprises abound. So of course now I can't wait to read the other two.

24 people found this helpful

Liam J Madden

Nordic Noir At It's Best...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is with little doubt a brilliant exploration of 'Nordic Noir'. As a book that manages to convey both brilliance and extremely a well thought out story, there's very few books that live up to the hype and 'The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo' is definitely one of them. It's brilliant on many levels.
Although there is sadness in the passing of Stieg Larsson, the three books that he wrote in the 'Millenium Series' manage to 'break the mould' when it comes to massively improving the thriller genre. Just about every word in this first novel is masterful and even the dialogue has to be admired.
Lisbeth Salander and Mikale Blomkvist are the two strongest characters that manage to take the novel up to dizzying heights. Apart from them, the various characters throughout the book are expertly thought out and it is little wonder why this genus piece of writing managed to become such a success.
Although concentration is required for the first chapter, the rest of the story is beautifully written and although shocking in parts, it's a book that makes it's points very well and extremely carefully. Salander stops the book becoming trash as her strength holds the believability of the work together. Highly recommended.

5 people found this helpful

Bookman Pete

In the beginning

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Re-reading the trilogy and the secret with this book is that its a prologue to the real story, with its own plot and conclusion, to introduce the characters with a few slight hints to what follows, but you really need to read The Girl That Played With Fire and a the Hornets Nest to discover the real story. The 2 subsequent books, by a different author are just bandwagon books.
If you want to watch the films, the original Swedish films are the best, a film of each of the three books. The Hollywood travesty with Daniel Craig isn't worth the effort.

14 people found this helpful

Elk2011

Very Slow to Start but Absolutely Worth Sticking With

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

If you, like me are a Patrica Cornwall and/or James Patterson fan who has in recent years found yourself wondering "Didn't I read this already?" about their new releases, then this is the way to go. It's something completely different and yet strangely similar which will have you feeling like you've just started reading crime fiction all over again.

I had to start this book twice before I finally managed to read it through. The pace for the first half of the book is very, very slow. This combined with an unusually "choppy" writing style, which I assume may be down to translation can make breaking the barrier on this book quite challenging, so much so that you will no doubt be tempted to give it up and be left wondering what all the hype was about but this would be a mistake in my opinion.

Once the book "got going" it engaged me fully, I found myself wanting to read on and on. Perhaps the most striking difference between this novel and those I usually read is the unpredictability of the characters. Stieg Larsson manages to create characters which SHOULD be dislikeable e.g. Michael is a man who sleeps around and believes any woman, married or not is fair game and Lisbeth is an anti-social misfit with no little emotional intelligence, but nonetheless you do like them and you want to read on to see what happens with each of them next.

The background of the book being set in Sweden adds an unusual backdrop to the novel, and whereas I've historically found anything set outside of the US or UK difficult to get involved in, this wasn't the case here - probably due to the very descriptive nature of Larsson's writing, which I admit at times can be a little TOO much but ultimately I as grateful for as it allowed me to get a much better "feel" for the surroundings of the characters and made the read on the whole, much richer.

The story itself is about a disgraced journalist (Michael Blomkvist) who winds up conducting an investigation into a cold case missing person investigation for a wealthy, old media tycoon. During his investigation he crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a private investigator who has been declared mentally incompetent by the state but is infact a computer genius with very little social savvy. When the two characters finally meet and team up to solve the mystery, the real "chemistry" happens and you'll stop wondering what the hype was about and start wondering when you should download/buy the second book.

In short, this is one of the best novels and certainly one of the most unique (along with the next two books) I've read in several years. Don't be put off by the unusual writing style or the slow start as if this turns out to be a novel you love or hate, you'll at least be able to say you've read one of the most popular "cult" authors of this century as Larsson has undeniably become.

26 people found this helpful

Sto Pro Fide

Slow burner became page turner

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

I bought this book solely because I'd heard someone I like talking about it with someone who'd read the book.

The scene setting seemed to take so long that I nearly gave up. I need now to apologise to the author as the scene setting was very necessary. The pace picks up about one third of the way through and after which the story boils up to a crescendo ..... and I didn't spot the outcome.

The sub plot takes over which forms a rather satisfying diminuendo sequence and a finale which though not sickly sweet was probably a realistic one which allows a sense of closure to the book.

I really like it. The language was easy to gallop through, the plot built well and was well thought out. Parts were a little far fetched to my mind but it was only minor things here and there and it would be churlish to suggest that a total suspension of one's sense of reality was required.

I'd recommend this to those who like crime thriller novels

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Buy new: $4.33

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium) Mass Market Paperback – Box set, June 23, 2009

Enhance your purchase

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

About the author

Stieg Larsson

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$4.33