Here is how the summary goes like:
A publishing sensation across Europe—two million copies sold and months at the top of best-seller lists. A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. 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, Henrik, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. And it’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired by Henrik to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism—and a surprising connection between themselves. A contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of whom must face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
Meanwhile, off-the-grid, anti-social computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, who ran Blomkvist's background check, is running some investigations of her own. Eventually, the two of them, Blomkvist and Salander will cross paths and agree to join forces, becoming one of the more unusual crime-fighting teams out there. As their research deepens, the information that they turn up becomes increasingly horrific, and it soon becomes apparent that this thirty-year-old murder or disappearance is far from irrelevant - and someone will stop at nothing to keep them from finding out what really happened.
Although the disappearance of Harriet is the crux of the novel, there is a vast array of other plots and storylines that make up the bulk of the book - swathes of exposition on rather irrelevant issues, complex backstories for people who are tangential to the plot, and some rather questionable decisions in pacing and characterization.
The biggest mistake is probably the fact that after the mystery of Harriet is solved, the book continues on at length in regards to the score Mikael has to settle with Wennerstrom, the latter being a character we never meet and who encompasses a storyline that has no real emotional weight to it, especially after the watershed of the Harriet-plot. It's like two books have been squished into one. In this respect, there's simply too much going on in a novel that contains a lot of excess padding (I could have happily done without the insight into Mikael's love life considering that practically every woman who crosses his path wants to sleep with him, and none of it adds anything to the plot).
Mikael uncovers a clue in a photograph that I refuse to believe the diligent police-investigator didn't pick up for himself, and I saw the twist concerning the numbers that Harriet had written in her notebook coming a mile away (if movies have taught me anything, it's that if faced with a series of obscure numbers, one should simply reach for the Bible). Finally, the ultimate fate of the killer is immensely unsatisfying. To avoid spoilers I'll just leave it at that, but readers will know what I mean.
It seems inevitable then that a character like Lisbeth Salander would be born out of this experience, and Larsson even goes so far as to name her after the original rape victim. Unfortunately, this leads to another trip-up, probably the most glaring of the entire novel. It will come as no surprise to the reader to learn that Lisbeth is raped (by her legal guardian appointed by the state, no less) but Larsson completely glosses over the emotional trauma sustained by rape victims to a rather jaw-dropping degree. Lisbeth is completely calm and self-assured as she meticulously plots her retribution, making the whole thing little more than a revenge-fantasy. Larsson appears to try and cover for this towards the end of the novel by insinuating that Lisbeth has Asperger's syndrome, but since this is also brought up only to be ignored, it becomes just as irrelevant as the rape itself.
With that in mind, the central theme of the novel is almost ludicrously simplistic: rapists, religious fanaticism and Nazis are bad. Perhaps the reason I wasn't so bothered by the rape/violence was because it caters to a message that is hardly shocking or profound. Of course, it's easier to point out the flaws of a novel than the strengths, and ultimately - this is a strong novel. I found Lisbeth to be a fascinating character, and the hunt for Harriet's killer kept me committed to seeing it through to the end.
At last the one thing that was unsatisfying was the fact that the translated(in English) title of the book become "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" when the original Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor translates to "Men Who Hate Women" - which is much more appropriate than the english title, regarding the context of the book. I recommend this international bestseller to all who eagerly sift new books for challenging intellectual crime thrillers, who luxuriate in immersing themselves in the ambience of a compellingly created world and memorable characters, who soak up financial and investigative minutiae as well as computer hacking tidbits, and who want to share Larsson's crusade against violence and racism.
