The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This book is slow to 'get going' and at first it was a bit confusing. For the first half an hour I wasn't sure whether I had made a mistake in choosing it - but after that I was hooked, and spent two days compulsively listening!

It's a brilliant story, well written and well read.

At last, the unabridged version of this brilliant book (the first in the Millennium trilogy)is available to download. A disgraced Stockholm journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, is asked to investigate the disappearance (in 1966) of an industrialist's niece. Aided by the 'mentally incompetent' 20-something, Lisbeth Salander (the eponymous Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), the journalist descends into the nightmare underbelly of Swedish society, Saul Reichlin (better known for his narration of David Hewson's Nic Costa novels) does his usual expert job. This has got to be one of the best downloads of 2009.

This is the first and in my opinion the best of the trilogy. This story can stand alone from the two subsequent works, books two and three are in effect two halves of one story.
The character, Lisbeth Sallander is very interesting and as we peel the layers, she becomes more complex. The story line is well thought out and the ending is anything but obvious. Very good listen.

I'm not sure there's a lot to add that won't have been said about the book already, but of the audiobook version; I found the narrator very good with a steady pace, good enunciation and good pronunciations of the Swedish names and places, however I found his slightly ?breathy?, almost overly feminine rendition of all the female characters a little irksome, especially Lisbeth. But then he does have a gruff voice and anything other than breathy may be difficult to associate with a female character.

That said, I found it thoroughly enjoyable and I?m certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

Also found the Audible App for my Android phone really good. I discovered I didn?t have to download ? the stuff onto my laptop I seemed to need in terms of software, and I definitely don?t need iTunes (works fine on Windows Media Player). I also was really chuffed that the Enhanced version of the files worked on my Android as the improved sound quality is noticeable.

A new, exciting, original and absolutely brilliant first novel, the first in the Millennium Trilogy. I just can't understand anyone giving this less than 5 stars. One of the most gripping novels of the decade for sure. Yes, the names are long and awkward for us Brits, but that's only a minor point. I found it absolutely gripping and downloaded the other two books straight after, which just get better and better. It's a real shame Mr. Larsson isn't around to provide us more. Superbly read by Saul Reichlin too. Top notch

I was very sceptical about this book before I downloaded it. I knew of it's Swedish origins, and was worried about the quality of the translation. My scepticism turned to confusion, when I was about two hours in, and had no idea what was going on. I admit, I had to use wikipedia to make sense of the names. Turns out my confusion was partly caused by me unknowingly falling asleep and missing a huge chuck, but still, a little confusing. Once i got the names sorted, however, I began to love the book, and the characters. There were a few issues I had the first few hours (to be honest, the first 13 hours) which was caused by the apparent lack of ANYTHING happening. I was frustrated at the apparent lack of investigation, and it did rather feel as if the book did not move on. However, this cleared up largely towards the end, and when I re-listened to the whole story on a long car journey, i realised that none of the long explanation and detail occurred without either an interesting entertainment value, or a relevance to the plot.

I ended up loving the book. However, as a warning to anyone interested, this book is, in places, sexually explicit, and includes semi detailed sexual events and acts, and is therefore not suitable for young children, for those considering the audio book for long car journeys with young family members.

Initially this does not seem a good book to listen to (as opposed to read) because it is written with almost forensic detail, and this is particularly noticeable at the beginning which is very much concerned with the business world. (I notice some readers on Amazon also say it's initially hard going). Also there seems to be an endless list of characters, and names of places and people are Swedish, and it felt overwhelming. BUT stick with it at least to Part 2. This is truly one of the best thrillers I have some across in ages. It veers from one genre to another, the plot twists and turns, the characters are brilliant and it throws up continual surprises, confounding my expectations. By the end I realised how important the initial detail is, and my patience was rewarded. I grew to love the detailed descriptions and my enjoyment was particularly helped by the reader, Saul Reichlin, who made all the characters come alive, and kept the pacing under control which at times became unbearbly exciting, as true story telling should be.
More than all this, it is a deeply moral book, which throws up various dilemmas, which I found very involving and which added yet another layer of interest to the book for me. I love the two main protagoginsts so much that I felt like I had lost friends when I came to the end. Two books in the trilogy to go. How long can I wait to start the next one?

I was worried that, given the length of this book, there would be a lot of padding. However, it was a really good read and excellent value for money. I will certainly read the next two!

This is the first review I have been compelled to write. From the very start of this book it had me enthralled. It was a book that I found I was unable to put down. This story was beautifully written and narrated fantastically. Over the past year, I have tried to find a book that is satisfying and now I have, I am about to start the next one.

I hadn't realized that this book was the first book in the Millennium trilogy by the author and started by listening to his second book (The Girl Who Played with Fire), which I enjoyed but was a bit confused by for the first couple of hours of the recording. Had I listened to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I would have fared much better as it introduces all the characters and describes in detail events that are alluded to in the second book. This first book in the series is an exciting story and I was gripped from the start and kept wanting to return to the recording to find out what happened next, even though I'd listened to book two and had some inkling of what had happened earlier. Although there are many characters and several threads in the narrative I was able to keep track of who was whom and where they fitted in to the story. This was greatly helped by the incomparably fine narrator, Saul Reichlin, who gives life to the characters by altering his voice so that you believe that you are listening as a man in his 80s or a teenage girl. I can't wait for book three.