I guess most folks have heard of these books by now. Of course I refer to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, “The Girl who Played with Fire”, and “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”.

First of all, I think it is a great trilogy. And although you could read then as separate books, you would miss a lot. It is much better to read them in order. The first starts out slowly. At least it seems that way to me and I’ve heard that comment from others. I didn’t really get into the story until about 50 pages. I’ve heard other say it was more for them. But I really think you need those pages to build the background for the characters on which the rest of the series is based.

And once you get thought that initial so period of 50 or more pages, you have 3 page-turners on your hands. And we are talking about a good number of pages. I guess it was about 1500 pages or so for me but I guess that may vary a bit depending on your editions. And of course it you have a Kindle or such there are no pages to turn. And I don’t think anyone has come up with a page-turner phrase for eReaders yet.

So “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” introduces with main characters and tells part of their stories in the first few chapters. Then goes on to involve them in a mystery with several unexpected developments. The characters and situations, like the mystery, are a bit odd (especially Lisbeth of Dragon Tattoo fame) but entirely believable. I know there are plenty of reviews that will tell you something of the plot but that is not what I am doing here. Plenty of reviews like that on Amazon (see my link below). I would have been satisfied with this as a stand-alone book.

But of course I knew there was a second and a third and as I enjoyed the first so much I went on with hardly a break. The second starts out with Lisbeth in an entirely new setting but some the tie-in is obvious, the action moves back to Sweden, and many of the characters from the first book re-appear. We learn a good bit more about Lisbeth and why she is like she is. And some events from the first book make more sense and become more important. The third book follows directly from the second.

Steig Larsson was a journalist and it is probably no accident that a main character is a journalist. They say you should write about what you know. It is the fictional journalist (Mikael Blomkvist) who is convicted of libel and gets involved in the central mystery of book one and brings Lisbeth in to help because of her special talents. She is clearly the main character in all 3 books.

So if you are interest in trying these books (maybe even getting all three at once) or just want to know more about the books or author, please check out the
Steig Larsson Page at Amazon