The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review (4/5)

There's a lot of hype currently surrounding the late Stiegg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, and having read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first instalment, I can to an extent see the justification. Larsson isn't exactly the next Wordsworth or Faulks, only possessing the same vocabulary as any other modern-day author rather than bringing something new to the table, and yet his narrative is gripping, a muti-layered yarn that contains some of the darkest, but ultimately most effective content I've read in a long time. The plot focuses on journalist Mikhael Bloomvist, recently libelled in court and now on the case of the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger, an event which took place over fourty years before. This forms the centrepiece of the novel, undoubtedly the thread that will keep readers compelled to read just one more chapter before putting it down, and the way in which Larsson ties together Bloomvist's story with that of Lisbeth Salander, the titular Girl, a detective who will use any means to acheive her goal and is not to be fooled with (as proven by her payback for a dark happening early on- Best. Revenge. Ever.) is totally unpredictable and innovative. The now-deceased author seemed to possess a talent for building up tension, because easily the most effective part of Dragon Tattoo is the investigation of Vanger's supposed murder, where your mind is left to guess at what the resolution to the mystery may be. Inevitably, the build-up is so effective in flexing your imagination to percieve all the possible outcomes that when we are given the truth, despite coming as a surprise it can't help but feel a little dissatisfying, not quite living up to our hopes of a 'pull the rug from under your feet' surprise twist, though still undeniably unexpected. That is not my main gripe with Dragon Tattoo, however. In fact, I think if the novel had ended on the final twist in the Vanger case, it would have scored much higher for leaving us with a harrowing image. As it is, Larsson then elects to spend the final hundred pages explaining Bloomvist's own revenge on the wealthy businessman who libelled him, along with the help of Lisbeth. For those readers who like all of the loose ends in a story to be tied up, Larsson will please you fully, but I couldn't help but feel like the situation could have been wrapped up within ten or twenty pages (I'm told the Swedish film adaptation deals with it in the final few minutes) and the novel could have been much better off for it. Overall, then, an enjoyable read that should easily convince you to get the other two novels in the trilogy, but one that isn't without notable shortcomings, perhaps overshadowed too much by the hype.