Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Brilliant, please read January 8, 2009
Big Neen (Newcastle upon Tyne)
I found this book a very compelling read and couldn't put it down. The characters are well developed and the multi layers of the story are well plotted. There are other reviews to give more detail as to a plot synopsis so I won't repeat them here, save to say if you like crime / thriller books then you may well like this. About to purchase volume two...
Totally compelling January 7, 2009
J. Graham (uk)
I've had this on the shelf for a while, decided to give it a whirl and I've got to say this is a totally compelling read. You start off with an court case involving a journalist, then you move on to a missing persons case from the 60's, then another layer of corruption and abuse is added and finally you end up with something you just didn't see coming. Fantastically written, it is just a shame he died after his third book was finished. If 2 and 3 are as good as this I will be very happy
Wonderful. Totally engrossing. January 4, 2009
EMac (Wales)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A wondeful multilayered mystery. You will not want it to end but at the same time will be eager to see the final conclusion. There are a number of strands to this, all are satisfactorily dealt with and the main characters are very engaging. It is to be hoped that we learn more of them in the subsequent books. At the very least, of the 'girl with the dragon tattoo'. Already, I am sure that I will be regretting that there are to be no more, when I get to the end of the third book.
 A Perfect Onion January 4, 2009
Simon Hall (Leeds, UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a fantastic book! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a wonderful novel, brilliantly structured and with at least one fascinating character. It more than lives up to comparison with the many crime thrillers its main protagonist reads throughout the story.
First, the structure. This is the first of a trilogy, so the introductions take a while. We meet Mikael Blomkvist as he finds himself the victim of a corporate 'sting', and looking for a way to save his magazine and hide out for a while. Simultaneously, we meet Lisbeth Salander, an autistic genius (think 'Rain Man' with claws), and slowly their fates entwine around the search for a long-lost neice, and then for a rather more contemporary horror.
Each of these story lines opens up into the other, so the story of the magazine and the corporate shenanigans is resolved last, and the modern (spoiler alert) serial killer element is introduced last and resolved first. I love this - it felt like burrowing into the heart of an onion and then out again. Russian dolls come to mind, too.
Mikael Blomkvist is an engaging enough character, although somewhat unbelievably attractive to women, but it is Lisbeth who will hopefully become the golden thread in the series: she is a truly unique creation, and while this is no 'Curious Incident...', she is well drawn and compassionately portrayed.
So why haven't I given this five stars? Well, firstly, I found that the onion metaphor cuts two ways: when you get to the centre you find nothing there. In the end, I didn't really care for any of the characters. They were interesting, but emotionally I wasn't invested. This may have been because I just couldn't identify with the main character.
Blomkvist's love-life is so unlike my own (he beds all the main female characters) that I found myself wondering what kind of sheltered life I've been living and failing completely to put myself in his shoes. Perhaps I should take a holiday in Sweden and see what ravishing ladies I can - ahem - bump into?
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo December 28, 2008
Kirsty Hill (goeteborg, Sweden)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I LOVE this book.
I am currently living in sweden and the buzz around this book has been building for a while. My partner is swedish and a friend recomended this as a christmas present for him last year. As he spends 30 -45mins in the car every morning i bought it him on CD, needless to say i found him sitting outside in the car because he "didnt want to miss anything", i had to find out for myself what all the fuss was about so i eventually got hold of a tanslated copy.
I must say at this point i sat down to read it and the first 100 pages are not the best, infact i was almost ready to put it down and call them all crazy for been so addicted to such rubbish. but i persevered and from page 101 i couldnt put it down, infact my partner thought id lost my voice for 2 days!!
the book its self is full of everything you need for a thriller/crime novel, suppence, drama, action. I couldnt wait for the second one to come out in english, i just hope they dont make us wait that long for the Thrid.
Nothing has come even close to this book since.
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