Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.
He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history.
But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.
Rating: 4 Stars
Overall this was a very enjoyable read. Solving a murder mystery forty years on, for which a body has never been found was never going to be an easy task. This murder has driven one man to his wits end, and he eventually hires a journalist to see if he can unearth some new material and discover the truth about what happened to Harriet.
Until about halfway through when Blomkvist and Salander finally meet, the book feels as if its two separate stories. Out of those two stories I find myself more involved in Salander's story, and only gain a proper interest in what happened to Harriet once Salander and Blomkvist team up. This second half of the book though is where we suddenly see a lot more action so that's when I really started to become involved with the story.
Characterisation wise I absolutely adored Salander. She is a bit of an enigma and I get the feeling that we still have a lot to learn about who she is, and what happened to her as a child. We know that there was a big event known as All The Evil, but we haven't explicitly been told what this is. Blomkvist on the other hand didn't really appeal to me. He's shown as having a very strong moral backbone and a very black and white outlook of the world, yet he's a ladies man who even when he is in a committed relationship is having this on off thing with Erika. So hes more than a bit of a hypocrite in my eyes.
There are a few bits of book that I really don't agree with including details of Salander being raped, the truth of what happened to Harriet (you'll know what ai mean when you get to that point), and the detail with which particularly grisly murders are described.
Would I recommend this book? Oh yes, this is well worth a read. Now I'm off to see if the other books in the trilogy live up to this one.
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