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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson
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This crime novel from Sweden has become an international publishing sensation. The first in a trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo deals with the family history of a slightly faded Swedish industrial dynasty that holds many secrets. Just how horrific these secrets are doesn’t become apparent until journalist/investigator Mikael Blomkvist and his unlikely research assistant Lisbeth Salander (the girl in the title with said tattoo) start to unravel the details of the disappearance of a young female family member some forty years earlier.

It was hard to put this one down. I liked the descriptions of the brutally cold Swedish winters, the coziness and banality of small town life in Hedeby, the bustle of Stockholm, the eccentric personalities in the family, work relationships... all this against the brutality of the crimes that are revealed.
©Ken Vesey, 21 Apr 2010

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