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the girl with the dragon tattoo
http://tinyurl.com/78tvugv
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or Men Who Hate Women as the name is when translated
straight from Swedish, is Stieg Larsson's first novel. It is also the first part of his The Millennium
Trilogy. Millennium is quite small magazine that is owned by journalist Mikael "Kalle" Blomkvist
and his "occational lover" Erika Berger. Millennium is published in Stockholm, the beautiful capital
of Sweden.
In the beginning of the book, Mikael Blomkvist gets sentenced to prison for three months for
libeling of well-known Swedish business man Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Mikael had been accusing
Wennerstrom for many kind of white-collar crimes, but in the end all the evidence falls to pieces for
some reason. Mikael pledges for revenge since he thinks the sentence was underserved. Soon he
seems to get a change for it, when another business-mogul Henrik Vanger approaches him with
and interesting and appealing offer. Vanger wants Mikael to solve a mystery that has become an
obsession to Henrik Vanger: what happened to his niece Harriet Vanger forty years ago when she
just disappeared without a trace. And if Mikael succeeds, Vanger will give him Wennerstrom's
head on a plate. Another job for Mikael is to write a book about Vanger-family and its history.
Mikael agrees to take the job and spend a year in Vanger-family's hometown, a little town
Hedestad. 300 km north from Stockholm.
Mikael starts his job by inspecting the family history, and soon he finds out that there are skeletons
buried in almost every closet he opens. It seems that almost every family member hates each
other. There are a lot of weird characters in the family tree and only Henrik Vanger seems to be
normal one. Mikael notices as well, that not every family member is keen on the fact that Mikael
has started digging the secrets of the family.
While seeking material for his book about Vanger-family, Mikael starts to solve the weird
disappeareance of Harriet Vanger. It happened 40 years go, when the whole family was gathered
together. In the early afternoon Harriet just disappeared without a trace and nobody had a glue
where she had gone. Everything happened in a closed island Hedeby near Hedestad. It's famouse
so called "closed-room scenario". Due to car accident, roads out from the island are closed for a
day, and during that time Harriet disappears. Nothing points that a crime has happened that can't
be ruled either. The whole island is searched through several times but no sign of Harriet is found.
Years go by but Harriet's case remains unsolved.
Finally, after working hard for many months, the secrets starts slowly unfold itself. Mikael also
finds out that he needs help because there are so much things that need to be researched. Henrik
Vanger's lawyer and good friend Dirch Frode tells Mikael about Lisbet Salander, who have been
helping Frode and Vanger earlier as well. Lisbet is an extraordinary young woman with a lot of
piercings and, a dragon tattoo. Lisbet is a genious with computers and is able to make them
anything for herself. She, of course, has her own closets full of skeletons. Through her short life,
2. Lisbet has been dragged from institution to institution. She is used to solve arguments with other
people with violence and has emotional problems as well. But she's not stupid, nowhere near...
Together these two very different persons start gather the pieces of the puzzle, and finally the
pieces begin to find their places and a horrible, horrible picture start to shape. They know they are
near to solve the mystery when someone starts threatening them. First by putting a dead cat on
the porch of Mikaels little cabin in Hedeby, and then with more serious actions... Finally this
frightening story and journey reaches it end, and it will be exciting and interesting!
As many reviewers before me have said, although this novel is a fantastic first novel, it is also
partly farfetched and extravagant. Turns in the plot are full of imagination, but sometimes even too
much full of it. But still, there are a lot more positive sides in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and
this girl herself is the most interesting one. Lisbet Salander is the most improbable star in the world
of crime novels at the moment. Stieg Larsson has succeeded to create a beautiful and compelling
character even she definitely is not a fashionable one. Mikael Blomkvist's character isn't so
interesting but these two work together very well. But anyway, I liked this novel so much that I
can't wait to get my hands to the other two books of the Millennium Trilogy: The Girl Who Kicked
the Hornet's Nest and The Girl Who Played with Fire.
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the girl with the dragon tattoo
http://tinyurl.com/78tvugv
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