The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Like women sleuths? This book introduces a fascinating character, Lisbeth Salander, a Swedish computer geek or as she would rather put it, "researcher", with a crazy 20-something life. She's teamed with a financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist who is hired to dig into the mixed-up family of Henrik Vanger, a captain of Swedish industry. If it weren't for the raunchy crimes involved in both Lisbeth's current life and the disappearance of Henrik's niece, Harriet, this would be a super cliff-hanger with an unlikely pair of mystery-solvers. I loved the characters. Hated the raunchiness. If that doesn't bother you, go for it. I won't be reading the two sequels to this book, unfortunately. I'll miss following more adventures of Lisbeth, but I won't miss the graphic scenes describing unspeakable crimes against women.