I've been hearing a lot about how good the Swedish mystery writers are, and if this book is any indication, I'm moving to Stockholm and learning the language because I want to get close to the source. 
 I'm usually wary when the hype around a book reaches huge proportions and this novel has been a worldwide phenomenon even before I started seeing it all over the bookstores here in America. But this is one example of when the furor is justified. 
 There are two main characters. Mikael Blomkvist, a veteran financial reporter, and Lisbeth Salander, an anti-social punk with a part-time job as a researcher at a security firm. 
 When the book begins, Blomkvist has just lost a libel case where he had written about criminal wrong doing by a prominent industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. With his reputation in ruins and the magazine he co-owns on the brink of collapse, Blomkvist is summoned to Hedeby Island by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of a wealthy family. 
 Henrik wants to commission Blomkvist to write a family history, but that's just a cover story. Henrik's niece, Harriet, vanished while on Hedeby Island in the early 1960s during a day when the island was cut off from the mainland due to a massive traffic accident on its only bridge. It's the ultimate locked room (or locked island) mystery. Over 30 years of investigation have convinced Henrik that Harriet was murdered, very possibly by someone in the Vanger family, and he wants Blomkvist to comb through the massive amount of material he's collected and see if he can find anything new about the case. 
 Blomkvist is hesitant, but Henrik not only offers to help cover his financial problems due to the libel case and with the failing magazine, he also claims to have evidence that would prove that Wennerstrom is a criminal and will help clear Blomkvist's reputation. Blomkvist agrees and moves to Hedeby Island to begin the research. 
 As this is going on, a parallel story revolving around Lisbeth Salander is also being told. Salander is so anti-social that she can barely function in society and has to endure legal guardianship by the state since it decided that she's incapable of managing her own life. However, Salander is really a brilliant researcher and computer genius who just can't stand people. 
 Originally hired by Henrik Vanger to vet Blomkvist, Salander becomes intrigued with Blomkvist's libel case and begins checking out Wennerstrom on her own. However, changes in her legal status concerning her guardianship soon present her with severe problems in her own life. 
 There were several things I loved about this book, and one of them is the leisurely pace it has for the first half. Most of this portion consists of Blomkvist sitting in a cabin on Hedeby Island reading about Harriet while Salander is in a desperate struggle to reassert some independence against her new guardian. The key part of the mystery about Harriet really doesn't pick up until the second half of the novel, but it didn't bother me a bit. I was so caught up in the story that I was perfectly happy to let it unfold as slowly as it wanted. 
 I also loved the characters. Blomkvist is a great reporter and a very decent man, but he can also be selfish and a bit of a shit. The book doesn't pull any punches in indicating that he isn't a good father and is a bit too casual in his relationships with women. Salander is unfriendly and lacks any social graces at all so she should be unpleasant to read about. But even before the book engages your sympathy for her due to an extremely bad situation she finds herself in, I couldn't help but like the damaged girl who has such an anti-authority streak that she refuses to ask for help from the police or lawyers when she has every right and reason to. She'd rather handle her problems herself than engage an authority figure, and she's got a mean streak. 
 Another thing I liked is that even though this was written before the worldwide 2008 financial implosion, the author Stieg Larsson, who was a financial reporter in Sweden, uses the subplot about Wennerstrom to illustrate how he felt that financial reporters were entirely too close to the financial bigwigs and no real investigative reporting was being done. Recent revelations about guys like Bernie Madoff makes it clear that Larsson was ringing an alarm bell. Too bad no one listened. 
 Fair warning for those considering reading. The original Swedish title of this book is Men Who Hate Women, and you'll see why if you read it. Although not overly explicit, there are several segments dealing with rape and sexual assault. 
 Larsson apparently wrote mysteries as a hobby and had completed three but hadn't tried to publish them until shortly before his death a few years ago. I'm already bummed that there are only going to be two more of these terrific books by him to read.