Swedish Fish (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson)

I finished The Polysyllabic Spree last night and immediately started my next read (I'll post about it when I finish), but in the meantime, I wanted to write about a book that I read a while back and thoroughly enjoyed (note: I do not expect to like everything I read. However, this book was fantastic, and really, everyone should read it).

I am a mystery buff--I love novels that involve crime and murder and law and order. That makes me sound really creepy. I'll just throw out there that I really enjoy watching CSI and Law & Order a lot too. Anyone else bummed that L&O has been cancelled?

Anyway...The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first in a trilogy by this Swedish writer Steig Larsson. It would have been a series of six (I think) but Larsson died just after he finished the manuscript for the third novel. So I had been hearing a lot about these books recently and I was in Target one day and happened to see a paperback copy for something like $6. So I bought it on a whim (I don't normally go to Target for books. Everything else, yes, but not usually books) and as I was out of fresh reading material, I started it immediately when I got home.

The book was completely engrossing. The action centers around a writer, Mikael Blomkvist, and a computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. I won't give away the plot, but I couldn't put it down! At 600+ pages, it definitely took me several days, but I just really wanted to know what happened. And I couldn't guess! Usually I can figure the ending of a book out in the first few pages, but I honestly didn't know what would happen. It was a complete surprise!

Anyway, I bought the second book in the series (The Girl who Played with Fire) when I was at Target the other day, and I haven't started it yet. I'm partly saving it because I'm looking forward to it, and I'm partly busy reading some other books, and I'm partly afraid that it won't be as good as the first one. Anyone else have any thoughts? I know I hate to be disappointed when the first book in the series is the best. And if you've read these books, let me know! I'd love to hear thoughts.

Another list for you readers out there--my favorite mystery/crime books:

1. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (not for the faint of heart, as it's a true crime book about the Manson family)

2. In the Woods by Tana French (more of a psychological thriller, but it was fantastic)

3. Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

4. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

5. The Harper Connelly books by Charlaine Harris

6. Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson (technically, it's about the Body Farm at UT. but it's still really good)

7. The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde

8. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

9. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

10. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Happy Reading!