The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Wow. Just put down this book after finishing it. It was incredible. It deals with some rough topics, but if you're up for it, I recommend. Written by Swedish author, Steig Larsson, it's original Swedish title was "Men Who Hate Women." It's a mystery that deals heavily with sadism. I had been tipped by someone that it was going to be hard to read because of the content. Halfway through I thought that they must be wrong, but then the plot line really got going. Larsson was a fantastic writer. His format is intriguing and keeps you interested.

Basic plotline (without any spoilers)... Mikael Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, head of a major Swedish corporation that has long been family owned and run. He is given the job of writing a biography on the Vanger family, while secretly looking into (and attempting to solve) the mystery of what happened to Henrik's niece Harriet who had disappeared 40 years before. As Blomkvist goes about his job, he finds it goes much deeper than anyone ever imagined.

The style reminded me a lot of Dan Brown's writing style, except Larsson deals with much heavier topics (and doesn't stir up trouble with bogus claims). It gets you thinking and forces you to address some things that happen around the world every day. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series, "The Girl Who Played With Fire". So there's that!