I stayed up late last night to finish Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." I feel a little late to the party with this one. I first noticed the cover at Powells when I was there in November. And then suddenly everyone seemed to be reading it.
And rightly so! It was a great mystery and a great read. As I'd been warned, it starts a little slow: the mystery seems to be about financial industry shenanigans, but Larsson moves past it and explores a mystery that becomes engrossing, though also graphic and brutal. Forewarning: the original Swedish title of the book would translate to "Men Who Hate Women."
Written in Swedish and set in Sweden, it still translates well, and in fact the Swedish flavor helps make it even more interesting.
The author delivered three books to a publisher and then died of a heart attack very shortly after. Those three books make up what is now called "The Millenium Trilogy." (after the name of a magazine that features in the books). The first two have been published in the US, but the third isn't out yet.
After the first, I will most definitely be reading the next two.
(A note to those e-readers out there: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" it's only $6,00 on your Kindle.)