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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  By  cover art

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's summary

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The thrilling first book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series featuring Lisbeth Salander: “Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson’s first novel” (The New York Times). • Also known as the Millennium series

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.

Look for the latest book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, The Girl in the Eagle's Talons, coming soon!

Listen to the rest of The Millennium Trilogy.
©2008 Stieg Larsson (P)2008 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European best seller...At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets, this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple." (Publishers Weekly)

"Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson's first novel." (The New York Times)

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a striking novel. Just when I was thinking there wasn't anything new on the horizon, along comes Stieg Larsson with this wonderfully unique story. I was completely absorbed." (Michael Connelly)

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What listeners say about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Average customer ratings
Overall
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OK

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It took me about four years to finally get past the first chapter in this book. It starts out slow to me but is worth the read if you can stick with it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, interesting story

The narrator did a good job with all characters. Story was interesting and kept you engaged. I will probably read the next book in series to see where it goes.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, great narration

Simon Vance is my favorite narrator and he does a great job here reading this book. The series really takes off after this setup. It does have some author insertion fantasy about it, but it's fun and interesting. Give it a try and thank me later.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Extremely Satisfying

Exceptionally crafted story, with a great narration/production. Looking forward to listening to the rest of the Millennium series. Even having seen the movie adaptation, the story still comes across as suspenseful and intriguing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic

Loved it! Could not stop listening. Hope the next two are as good as the first.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty good

Slow at first but interesting and somewhat exciting as time went on. I will read the next ones

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    5 out of 5 stars
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DRAGON TATTOO

Steig Larsson’s invention of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander reincarnate Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Salander is considerably more fascinating than Watson but this detecting duo solves mysteries and murders with computer hacking acumen and idiosyncratic action as interesting as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

There is something for every bibliophile in Larsson’s book. There is mystery, suspense, intrigue, well-developed characters, and a good fiction writer’s skill in suspending disbelief. There are believable consequences for bad actors in Larsson’s story and a satisfying denouement. This is an excellent mystery nicely narrated by Simon Vance. Any fan of fiction will be pleased with Steig Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

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Very pleased I picked this book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this for newcomers as well as those who have seen the movie. I watched the original Swedish version years ago, haven't seen the US yet, and while I liked the story overall I thought it dragged and was confused by the character relations. So much so that while I recalled the plot points, I was able to listen to this book having forgotten who was responsible for the climax of the story!

I'm glad I purchased this. The story is captivating once you get over the hump of identifying the characters.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Blomkvist. While Salander is certainly a riveting personality and is the yang to his yin, the primary protagonist was portrayed realistically in an identifiable manner.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Vance was excellent and not melodramatic. Some narrators go over the top and as if the audio book is theater. Vance is concise and voices the characters uniquely without distracting from the story.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Worth a listen, but the movie would take less time

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, the writing style is methodical and overly detailed, it's difficult to pay attention to prose like that. The narrator's monotone doesn't help either. The first four chapters are painful, but then the plot picks up - the plot is the only thing that saves the book

What did you like best about this story?

The plot is intricate and complex, which makes it worth listening to

What didn’t you like about Simon Vance’s performance?

the women's voices all sounded weak and overly feminine, it really bothered me. When he isn't doing his poor voices, he reads in a monotone

Did The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to not read the other 2 books

Any additional comments?

This is one of those books where the movie is better than the book, the writing style is difficult to pay attention to, so watching it is much easier than listening to it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Why did I wait so long

By the end of this book I wondered why did I wait so long to "read" this. I was completely consumed.

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