The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who played with fire, who kicked the hornets nest - Steig Larsson

Firstly I should say that I didn't 'read' these three books, I listened to them on audio CD.  I've always had a problem with books that contain a lot of foreign words and names, and since the original language of these was Swedish I knew I'd struggle to keep up with the characters.

So, I bought the abridged versions (10 CDs each, unlike the unabridged which would have taken me forever to get through!), and started listening to them in the car......sometimes staying in the car long after the journey had ended to keep listening!

All three stories centre around two main characters; a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist, and a troubled, goth teenage computer hacker called Lisbeth Salander, and all are thrillers but with slightly different focuses; the first is a murder mystery, the second and third build on the theme with international crime and politics brought in for good measure!

I don't want to give the stories away, but I'd certainly say read them in order.  The first is sort of 'stand alone', and it's would be possible to read the second and third together; but the whole trilogy works so well, and the stories all come together so well it would be a shame to miss that dimension.

One thing I will say is that they are not for the faint hearted, there is violence (lots of it), and explicit sex, most of it violent.  But don't let that put you off.

The characters are great, you come to care for them, and Salander is like no other book heroine I've ever come across before – victim and heroine at the same time.

The shame of these books is the fact that the author died (suddenly and very young) just after delivering the last one to his publisher – so he never got to see the success, and we'll never get to read another story by him.

Inevitably they've been made into films, with the first and second already out – I want to see them, but haven't had the opportunity yet.  Of course they are unlikely to live up to the books, but should still be enjoyable none-the-less.  I'm sure that the character of Salander will pop up again!

Bought on Amazon - CD Audio books
April - May 2010