The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By: Stieg Larsson

Narrated by: Saul Reichlin

Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.

He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from 40 years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history.

But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

©2005, 2008 Norstedts Agency, Reg Keeland (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"I doubt you will read a better book this year." (Val McDermid)

"Intelligent, complex, with a gripping plot and deeply intriguing characters. The author's early death is a great loss." (Philip Pullman)

"What a cracking novel! I haven't read such a stunning thriller debut for years. Brilliantly written and totally gripping." (Minette Walters)

Authors self insert drivel

Would you try another book from Stieg Larsson and/or Saul Reichlin?

No.

What do you think your next listen will be?

The stand

Have you listened to any of Saul Reichlin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any of their other performances, however found the performance to be sufficient.

What character would you cut from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

The main character. He is an author self insert with few real flaws, whom is loved by everyone and is a sex-magnet for every female character in the story with a personality above "cardboard cutout".

Any additional comments?

Genuinely disliked the story, and have no idea why people found the story to be engaging at all.

Boring

I am giving a rating because all rating counts. Maybe I just dont like this kind of book, but I found that the story goes really slowly for most of the book, and then everything happens in the lest 20% of it. I heard this from another friend, so I think I am not the only one.

Did not like the message of this book

The characters in this book were great, especially the main character. This was well-written, well-narrated, and I was with the author all the way until the resolution of the book. I found that the main characters were compromised in their handling of the case and that they lost my sympathy and my interest as money and power corrupted the story.

Only made it half way

For half the book we see a man look at police reports, talk about business history, talk about family history, and are teased with an interesting mystery but the forward progression of the story has moved at a glacial pace and my genuine interest in what should be the main story is not enough to slog through the far less interesting sections. The narration is done very well and is enjoyable to listen too even if the content is bland.

Boring if you're not into economics

I might be biased by watching both movies first many years ago an had some expectations that were not covered.
I didn't remember all the story, I just remembered that I'd liked it and thought the book would be much better. Well, the beginning, and some parts of the book, are full of information that I couldn't understand or cared about as I'm no economist. I couldn't empathize with Blomkvist as he's just another "perfect" protagonist who can do anything and every female character wants to sleep with him. I like the idea of L. Salander, though.
And yes, if you are not familiar with Scandinavia surnames, in the audiobook you will be super confused because some of them sound very similar.
SPOILER: Once the main mystery was solved, I lost all interest on the following TWO HOURS of Blomkvist trying to save Millennium from Hans-Erik Wennerström attempts of revenge or something. That was boring and confusing, I couldn't understand or care about what Lisbeth or anyone were doing then (because of reasons previously stated) and I just let the audiobook go on until completion. If you are like me and don't care for stories about economics, this will bore the heck out of you!
Another thing that bothered me, unrelated to the story or performance, is the order of the chapters, the audiobook is divided in chunks of one hour or so, making it difficult to go back to specific parts of the story.
I'm not reading the next two books

I feel some kind of explanation is in order

In particular, the depiction of computer hacking betrays a contempt for the reading public which is borderline incomprehensible. A person could almost forgive Dan Brown for that awful "Lost Symbol" book. Almost.

Good enough!

It took a bit to get into this, but determined to be as entertained as I was told I would be, I perservered. All in all, it was a good listen. My main criticism of the book (and the subsequent ones in the series) is that the the woman characters all seemed so independent, intelligent, strong and compelling, whilst the men were all slime. Don't get me wrong, I love a strong female lead, but just felt this point was a bit overdone.