★★★★☆
Really 3.5 stars. A very entertaining mystery novel. I found the gore a bit excessive and often over-the-top, but in the end the story holds compactly together. If I hadn't known that this was the first novel of a series, I might have had more hesitations regarding the conclusion, but as is, I'm interested to learn what else awaits this dreary world Larsson crafted.
One issue I found interesting: the role of the women in the novel. The epigraphs that accompany the intro page to each part of the novel list statistics that deal with violence against women in Sweden. The murderer has a very perverse idea of women. This is a trope shared to varying degrees by several other male characters in the novel.
I wonder then did Larsson intend for the portrait of his protagonist Blomkvist's relationships with women to seem so sexist? To a certain degree, I think yes. Then again, it also relates not only to the actions of the protagonist but also to Larsson's own use of language as an omniscient narrator (and here I make sure to note that many things are inevitably lost in translation - but I doubt this element of the narration is the unfortunate product of Swedish-to-English rebirth). It's something about the narration that gave me consistent pause, the way the women of this novel all but throw themselves at Blomkvist's feet, as if in submission to some irresistible sexual Adonis. And likewise the way his actions toward them are described. Did Larsson produce an intentional or accidental irony?
In the end, I would recommend this novel for rainy days or long trips. It came in nicely during my recent holiday trips. It's slow in parts and perhaps the true denouement occurs too early in the plot to sustain the same degree of interest over the final 1/4 of the text, but it's still a finely crafted novel and well worth the attention of mystery fans in particular.
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