The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson

The book's synopsis says: "Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back". Nothing can be truer about this novel. I have come to realize that journalists can be very good story-tellers because they have a field of vision is much broader than a common  novel writer. The real world is actually more dramatic than any imagination.   I read "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga, who is also an Indian journalist a month ago. I am not comparing the two but I enjoyed both of them. I actually have a much greater fondness for novels that address more practical and bigger issues than the problems of three or four main characters.

The book tells about investigative journalism, high-level financial frauds, psychological problems and vulnerable position of women in Sweden. I don’t personally have any idea about women's position in Sweden but the facts presented in this novel are simply horrifying, if they really are facts. It tells in a frightening way how rotten someone can be behind a façade of wealth and glamour.

So the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starts with a prologue which makes its impact right away. I am generally not impressed by prologues because mostly there is hardly any word that the reader can understand from them and I usually read them again at the end to make some sense. But in this one, it’s the prologue alone that can make sure that the complete story is read.

The story starts with magazine Millennium's editor Mikael Blomkvist recounting the recent events that led to him being sentenced for two months in prison and a heavy fine. He had tried to expose a fraud billionaire industrialist Wennerstrom but he had been unable to prove his allegations. So he leaves the magazine thinking it would be better for all and goes on leave. At the same time, another industrialist Henrik Vanger, 82 years old and retired, offers him evidence against the Wennerstrom in exchange for his services in solving the mystery of his grandniece's disappearance 37 years ago. For the old man, nothing has ever been more important for the last 37 years. He lost all interest in his business which had to faced huge amount of loss. He is psychologically handicapped when it comes to forgetting her grandniece's disappearance. He has devoted entire 37 years to try to work out what happened to her and believes that someone in his own family murdered her. Now as he thinks he will die soon, he wants to make one last effort. For that, he contacts Blomkvist, who believes that there cannot be anything  left to be unraveled after 37 years. But it turns out there is yet a lot to be discovered from old photographs and diaries and old newspaper articles and in less than a year the mystery starts to unfold and reveals unspeakable horrors still prevailing within the Vanger family.

Now there is a strange character called Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. She is a social outcast and has some extraordinary talents, not all legitimate. She works as a freelancer and provides services as n investigator. The mysteries about this character have not been revealed in the novel but it is hinted that she suffered from some mishaps in her past that left her socially incapable. But her mind was not affected and she was still a very gifted investigator. She is engaged by Blomkvist to help in his research about the 37-year-old murder mystery. She lives with Blomkvist and he becomes closest thing to friend she ever had and she falls in love with him. Together they expose the dark truth about Vanger family.

After they finished their job, it turns out that Henrik Vanger's knowledge about Wennerstrom was useless. Here again Salander, using her talents in hacking, finds all the evidence against Wennerstrom for Blomkvist who publishes the whole thing and Millennium finds back all the glory, a happy ending.

The only thing I don’t understand is why the book is named as it is. Salander is one of the main characters but the story is not about her. I think the name is a bit misleading.

I was a long story but so compelling that it was impossible to put down. Not at a single point did it lose its pace. And I am dying to read the sequels.