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AudibleInk - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
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List Price: $29.95
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Manufacturer: Random House Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738
EAN: 9780739370643
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 0739370642
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Number Of Items: 6
Publication Date: 2008-09-16
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: 2008-09-16
Studio: Random House Audio
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Editorial Reviews:
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It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.
It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism and an unexpected connection between themselves.
Contagiously exciting, it’s about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: heartbroken
Comment: The best book in ages. Tragedy that he is gone: blessing that there are a few more. Heart is broken over ending: must repair!!!!!!!!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Mystery
Comment: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a terrific murder mystery/corporate intrigue thriller that keeps the reader guessing. So many novels like this start out strong, for me at least, and then, somewhere in the middle, the ending will become predictable, but not this one. Larsson had me guessing and surprised at where he took the narrative. This is an enjoyable read that will not disappoint. Enjoy!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Comment: "Among the best crime novels ever written" (from the back flap)? I don't think so. Somewhere in there (538 pages, import paperback) there was maybe 200 pages of good crime/mystery. Blomkvist and Salander are both engaging characters, and when they finally meet (at about page 300) the story takes off and doesn't let up until the resolution of Harriet's disappearance. BUT, weighted down with the entire Vanger family history, way too much info about Wennerstrom (whom we never meet), all those Vangers who ultimately have no impact on Harriet's story (not even as good red herrings, e.g., Harald), the terrific but totally wasted Dragan Armansky, and Salander's ridiculous "mission impossible" trip at the end, this story drops from a possible 4-star to 2-1/2 max stars for me. Let's hope for a little tighter editing on the next installment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Good Read Notwithstanding
Comment: I must agree with a majority of the reviews here and admit that this is a remarkable novel with a lot of drive and vigor, few paragraphs of filler, and a wild read. Larsson is an intelligent writer, and the continuous feel of his story and characters demonstrates a heightened skill level and the translation seems to be transparent, but as I cannot read the novel in its native tongue, I guess I'll never know. It is with a heavy heart that I downgrade my opinion from four stars to three: the book's shortcomings are tough to ignore. I wish there were a three and a half.
First, I'll go ahead and toss in my "ignorant American" commentary and say that the proper nouns in their original Swedish were distracting at times. The author assumed that I knew that this name was feminine or this place was affluent, whereas I had to draw those conclusions in context. My own shortcomings, you shout? Possibly, but I would have thought a more skilled translator to be able to fix those references. Most notably: "gaol" is a prison referenced several times throughout the book, though I have no idea what it meant. At first the term seemed to be interchangeable with "jail" but then I got the impression that it was simply a forced boarding house, or "minimum security" prison, but as it was never explained, I still have no idea.
Second, I will admit that I am a stickler on plot holes and Larsson has very, very few. I did note, however, that Blomkvist and Salander seem to find each other in a very forced way: Frode needs to find a biblical researcher and thinks of the woman who performed a background check? It seemed a little contrived. I also thought Bjurman might make another appearance after his paralyzing thought, "I have to get that video", but he did not rear his ugly face (and tattooed torso!). It lead me to believe that Larsson left that door open but ran out of time to include him back into the story.
Most severe, however, is clearly the denouement. After the climax, things started to drop out of sight quickly. Personally, I didn't understand why Salander didn't want to involve the police, but I guess that's her call. I thought the plot against Wennerström was far more elaborate than it needed to be, and focused a lot on the procedural process of publishing, which I gather is what Larsson really enjoys. The whole thing seemed too long, except for the final few paragraphs, which gloss over the relationship between the two main characters and rather obviously prepare Salander for the sequel.
Where Larsson really lost the fourth star, however, was putting no effort into making Blomkvist a full character. Mikael appeared to be a narrator at times, observing and deducing, but rarely acting. He drudged up a little anger at Frode after the climax, but even that dissolves after a pleasant paycheck. Lisbeth is definitely the highlight of the book and makes it worth reading, but she can't save the sinking ship after it has sprung a leak.
Overall, I recommend reading it and think you'll like it, too. But I can point you to countless titles I think you'd enjoy better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Idealistic Hero, an Unlikely Heroine, a Swedish Setting, Dangerous Secrets, and a Dandy Mystery Make for Great Fun
Comment: To me, this book is the most unexpected page-turning thriller I've read in some time. I couldn't wait for the next surprise.
I was reminded of first reading the early Ian Fleming books about James Bond, feeling like I'd entered a fascinating new world that I never had never dreamed of. But Stieg Larsson's writing is much better than Fleming's and these characters are more nuanced in their unusual characteristics.
The book defies normal novel categories. There are such a major story lines about both the hero and heroine that the novel would be more than adequate just developing those ideas. The mystery of a young woman's disappearance is more than adequate to sustain the interest of anyone who likes books about amateur detectives. In the background, there are dark secrets about a not-so-desirable family that would intrigue anyone who likes to read family sagas. What's remarkable is that these threads are very neatly combined so that you get a lot of story for your time, money, and reading pleasure.
Investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist has a problem: He's written something that he can't prove and has been sued for criminal libel. His blunder costs him his savings, his reputation, and his freedom while threatening the survival of his publication. How will he and the magazine recover?
Lisbeth Salander wants her freedom and finds it hard to win. Although she's tremendously talented, her past holds secrets that pin her down much as Gulliver was by the tiny ropes of the Lilliputians.
Henrik Vanger wants to find out what happened to his grand niece, Harriet Vanger, who disappeared while an accident was being handled near her home. Can he persuade Blomkvist to help him?
There has been a search going on for Harriet Vanger for over forty years. What have they been overlooking?
What skeletons are hiding in the pro-Nazi closets of the older generation of the Vanger family? How do these skeletons affect the present?
You'll probably never meet a more unlikely detection team than Blomkvist and Salander. The unusual chemistry and motivation behind their joint efforts directs the story into many unexpected and interesting directions.
Stieg Larsson gives as much attention to his characters and their development as most mystery novelists do to their plots. As a result, you can relate to these characters quite well . . . as though you had already read ten books in which they interacted. He also takes the time to make these characters as unique as real people are, making them more vivid and rewarding to contemplate than the two-dimensional cutouts that serve as "characters" in most mystery novels.
His plot is also very fine: He usually doesn't telegraph what's coming next. People act as unpredictably as they do in real life . . . making the plot messy . . . as real life is messy.
I was delighted to learn that although Mr. Larsson has died that there are two more books coming. I can hardly wait!
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