The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Millennium Series (Book Reviews)

Minor Spoilers Follow

Murder.

Rape.

Betrayal.

Hacker.

Conspiracy.

Corruption.

Violence.

These words taken separately do not make for an international bestselling novel series but somehow Stieg Larsson makes it work and boy he makes it work so well.

Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson born 15 August 1954 and died 9 November 2004, was a Swedish journalist and writer. I wouldn't have thought a novel series originally written in Swedish and translated to English would've read so easily, though it's possible that the Swedish to English translator took some liberties to make the ease in translation as painless as possible.

All his novels were published posthumously (which means after his death) as a result he didn't get to reap the rewards of his hard work. Had a flashback there to Netflix's series A Series Of Unfortunate Events with their penchant for explaining big words.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - August 2005 - English version - January 2008 - 672 pages
The Girl Who Played With Fire - June 2006 - English version - January 2009 - 752 pages
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest - May 2007 - English Version - October 2009 - 832 pages

For novels to have been translated to English to become international bestsellers, it's very very impressive, and the books while long and descriptive, makes for hours upon hours of reading. 

The biggest recommendation I can make for this series is that you have to stick to it, and keep turning those pages, every chapter has something new to be discovered. The series was amazingly well-written and a joy to wade through.

I was first brought onto the Millennium world via The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in 2011 and I downloaded the books to read. 
Admittedly, I struggled at first to get used to the author's writing style and at times some ponderous prose where he had to build the visual scene or give history on the character or place. To be honest, I don't think that Stieg Larsson would've written a great history book (it would've been a snooze fest), but as a crime writer, he's awesome. 

This series, immediately jumped into my top ten all time favorite book series. It's difficult to review one book in isolation as each story is indelibly linked to each other and you have to read all three to be fully satisfied. 
Book one - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ended off with everything resolving to a certain extent, but it was cut abruptly and made you feel that you have to see what's next for the two central characters.
Book two - The Girl Who Played With Fire ended off on a tremendous cliffhanger and made it necessary for you to wade through Book three - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest.

The main characters of the series are Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. 
Blomkvist is an investigative journalist and co-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Lisbeth Salander is an introverted, asocial, yet gifted, researcher and computer hacker working for Milton Security. 

Intriguingly, as a hero, Mikael Blomkvist, isn't the typical hero of Hollywood productions, while Lisbeth Salander is an breath taking version of an anti-hero but still manages to be the perfect troubled hero and main protagonist of the series. She is the survivor of a traumatic childhood which rears it's ugly head in Book 2 & 3.

Blurbs from Amazon - 
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue combine into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel, the first in Stieg Larsson's thrilling Millenium series featuring Lisbeth Salander.
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

The Girl Who Played With Fire
Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice, this second book in the Millennium series is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel. 
 Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest
In the third volume of the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head.
But she's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she'll need to identify those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she'll seek revenge--against the man who tried to killer her and against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life.


A couple things I should point out to the reader - one I have not yet finished the fourth book - The Girl in the Spider's Web written by David Lagercrantz, I'm not that impressed to be honest, it makes for a good book, but it's bit of a slog, as the writing style is not as good as Stieg Larsson's trilogy. It is enjoyable though to read another entry into the Millennium series. The other thing to point out, is that I have not yet watched the trilogy of Swedish Films made from the first three books, (yes there are English subtitles) I cannot read or write Swedish.

The original trilogy is highly worth the read, no matter how long it takes.

Have a good week everyone!