A 24-year-old computer hacker sporting an assortment of tattoos and body piercings and afflicted with Asperger Syndrome or something of the like has been under state guardianship in her native Sweden since she was thirteen. She supports herself by doing deep background investigations for Dragan Armansky, who, in turn, worries the anorexic-looking Lisbeth Salander is "the perfect victim for anyone who wished her ill." Salander may look fourteen and stubbornly shun social norms, but she possesses the inner strength of a determined survivor. She sees more than her word processor page in black and white and despises the users and abusers of this world. She won't hesitate to exact her own unique brand of retribution against small-potatoes bullies, sick predators, and corrupt magnates alike.

Financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. Blomkvist, after a Salander-completed background check, is summoned to a meeting with semi-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger whose far-flung but shrinking corporate empire is wholly family owned. Vanger has brooded for 36 years about the fate of his great niece, Harriet. Blomkvist is expected to live for a year on the island where many Vanger family members still reside and where Harriet was last seen. Under the cover story that he is writing a family history, Blomkvist is to investigate which family member might have done away with the teenager.

So, the stage is set. The reader easily guesses early that somehow Blomkvist and Salander will pool their talents to probe the Vanger mystery. However,Swede Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no humdrum, formulaic whodunit. It is fascinating and very difficult to put down. Nor is it without some really suspenseful and chillingly ugly scenes....

The issue most saturating The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that of shocking sexual violence primarily against women but not excluding men. Salander and Blomkvist both confront prima facie evidence of such crimes. Larsson's other major constituent elements are corporate malfeasance that threatens complete collapse of stock markets and anarchistic distrust of officialdom to the point of endorsing (at least, almost) vigilantism. He also deals with racism as he spins a complex web from strands of real and imagined history concerning mid-twentieth century Vanger affiliations with Sweden's fascist groups.

But Larsson's carefully calibrated tale is more than a grisly, cynical world view of his country and the modern world at large. At its core, it is an fascinating character study of a young woman who easily masters computer code but for whom human interaction is almost always more trouble than it is worth, of an investigative reporter who chooses a path of less resistance than Salander but whose humanity reaches out to many including her, and of peripheral characters -- such as Armansky -- who need more of their story told.

Fortunately, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in English translation will be followed by two more in the Millennium series: The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Air Castle that Blew Up. I can't wait. Larsson also made a 200-page start on a fourth book, but sadly he succumbed to a heart attack in 2004 and his father decided the unfinished work will remain unpublished.

斯蒂格·拉森(Stieg Larsson)，瑞典作傢與新聞記者。曾任職於瑞典中央新聞通訊社，並於工作之餘投身反法西斯主義的活動。一九九五年，他創辦瞭Expo基金會，並自一九九九年開始擔任基金會同名雜誌主編。由於他長期緻力於揭發瑞典極右派組織的不法行為，多年來一直受到程度或輕或重的死亡恐嚇與威脅。這部小說中總是積極捍衛社會正義、不求個人名利的男主角，幾乎就是拉森本人的化身。

拉森從二○○一年開始撰寫“韆禧”係列小說，二○○四年完成三部麯後，竟不幸於十一月因心髒病突發辭世，來不及看見首麯《龍文身的女孩》在二○○五年齣版，以及此係列小說售齣全球超過三十四國版權、轟動全歐的盛況。隨著第二部和第三部的齣版，“韆禧”係列引發閱讀熱潮，雄踞歐洲各國暢銷書排行榜，且曆久不墜。此外，《龍文身的女孩》在二○○六年奪得北歐犯罪小說協會最佳犯罪小說“玻璃鑰匙”奬；二○○八年，“韆禧”係列第三部《空中的城堡》（暫名）再度奪下“玻璃鑰匙”奬。拉森打破紀錄，成為瑞典有史以來第一位兩度獲頒該奬項的作傢。二○○八年二月，拉森入選英國《每日電訊報》“一生必讀的五十位犯罪小說作傢”。二○○九年，拉森被選為“歐洲最具衝擊力十大暢銷小說傢”，在榜單上排名超過丹·布朗與《暮光之城》作者斯蒂芬妮·梅爾，居於首位。