Book review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

September's book club selection was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I've heard nothing but good things about the trilogy novels so I was naturally excited to read the first book.

I was immediately drawn into the mystery of who was sending a framed dried flower annually...for decades to the rich Henrik Vanger. But then I got bored.

Without giving anything away, I figured out early on that the mystery wasn't what it appeared. One of the main characters, Mikael Blomkvist, was a financial journalist who stepped down from his magazine because he was sued for libel (and would go to jail). In another part of the city, a loner and goth-like Lisbeth Salander works as a kind of private investigator with an amazing ability to hack in to any computer without notice, regardless of security walls. She is hired to dig up information on said journalist.

Meanwhile Henrik Vanger contacts Mikael and offers him a one-year "job" to write the Vanger family history (HOOK), but there's a secret twist: Mikael will really be trying to discover what happened to his great-niece before he dies (LINE). Mikael only agrees to take the job because after the one year, Vanger promised to give him tangible information on the person with whom he libeled -- which will prove that the man really is a criminal (SINKER).

Mikael ends up working with Lisbeth and the two gradually uncover clues and piece things together to discover corruption in the Vanger family. Throughout the book, the reader learns more about the mysterious Lisbeth and gives us a glimpse into why she is the way she is.

Before I go on, I should say that I am not into drawn-out detailed novels unless the details have meaning. I was bored fairly quickly because nothing really happened in the first 100+ pages of the 590 page book. I almost went insane. Seriously, nothing happened. Blah blah blah. As a result, it took me forever to get into the book--and at page 460 or so the story started to get really good.

As far as I'm concerened, the book could have ended 100 pages before it did. The author describes every detail about everything. It's almost like he wrote a screen play instead of a novel. However, all and all, it was a good book, minus the details. *wink*

I swore I wouldn't read the rest of the trilogy, but I read the prologue of The Girl who Played with Fire and was sucked into the story, so we'll see. *wink*