The Girl With Dragon Tattoo

Hi friends I am back with the review of the novel which i read last summer, this particular novel was a piece of work Of Stieg Larsson's concluding part of the Trilogy- MILLENNIUM. MILLENNIUM-3 is given a name THE GIRL WITH DRAGON TATTOO.

The backdrop of the story is set in the SWEDEN. It is a crime/thriller fiction, and investigative novel. It deals with the problems faced by the modern times Investigative journalists and it also high lights the problem in the guardianship system in the SWEDEN laws (the system in which the children who have childhood problems and their parents are not mentally and physically capable for upbringing of the children).

WHAT IS DIFFERENT IN THE NOVEL?

This novel is a different in the terms of the theme variation; it deals in crime investigation, social issues And corporate trickery widely spread in different countries. It also deals in the social issue of the guardianship Laws in which the protagonist of the plot is caught and is repeatedly abused by her guardian and to make the things Worse she don't report the matter in the police because of her personal inhibitions and misunderstanding with the Legal system.The character of the protagonist LISBETH SLANDER is a very cleverly fabricated character who dresses herself in heavy make-up. She looks nowhere near to a normal girl, basically writer has tried to portray the Mental condition of the character who had been repeatedly abused by the society for one reason or the other and tries to bury herself and her feelings in her work of private investigator (in she was best) and disguises herself in the heavy make-up, piercings and tattoos to make her repulsive, so that no male attention is Caught due to her feminine features. She is represented here in the plot as a girl with troubled childhood and parental problems, and suffering With anti-social and aggressive behavior. Which gets her institutionalized and she is exposed to the guardianship System and under which she gets sexually abused by her guardian , which makes the matters more worse for her. The main lead of the novel MIKAEL BLOMKVIST is also an interesting character who is an investigative Journalist and works in unveiling the secrets and the corporate honchos. And his investigative abilities take him to the voyage of solving a 40 year old murder mystery of the granddaughter of the famous industrialist VANGER.

 In totality, this novel is mixture of many thrills and adventures. What is particularly different in this work is the multi-dimensional personality of the characters and the fascinating story base which creates a Spark of curiosity in the readers mind and forces a reader to think what happens next?

SUMMARY:

Mikael Blomkvist is a mid-aged investigative journalist and is a co-owner of a political magazine millennium. He is investigating a major corporate trickery which is spread out in different continents and is indeed Linked to HANS ERIK WENNERSTRÖM (a multi billionaire businessman).Mikael gets all the proofs 

And evidences to present it in the court of law but due to some last minute manipulations by the defendant Party the things turn hostile and Mikael lost the case and is sentenced to prison for 3 years. Due to personal and Professional disgrace he steps down from the millennium board. In the mean time he gets an investigative assignment from a veteran industrialist HENRIK VANGER, to investigate a 40 year old case disappearance of his granddaughter HARRIET. Blomkvist accepts the assignment unaware of the fact that Vanger has already done comprehensive investigation In his personal and professional life .This was undertaken by one of the best private investigator LISBETH SLANDER.

Mikael visits Vanger's estate at Hedeby several hours away from Stockholm. Enrick Vanger does not only promises to give a heavy monetary reward to him but also promises to give a solid proof of Wennerström's corporate trickery. Mikael moves to Hedeby for a year in the Vanger family estate where majority of the family members used to live. Vanger admits being obsessed with the case of his granddaughter and has detailed account of the day's activities when it happened. He tells Mikael that the person who was the murderer of Harriet used to send the framed flowers on his birthday, the practice which Harriet used to follow when she was 16 (before her disappearance) and it all resumed after a year of her disappearance . He provides the photographic material and the detailed history of the day. He provided the detailed hierarchical history of the Vanger family. He also told Mikael, that it was someone from the family or from the limited number of the people who were present at the island there. Mikael makes himself acquainted with different generations of the family and emphasized on the people who were present there on the island. For several days he works on the cold case of disappearance and started to have a feeling that the conspiracy was impenetrable.

SHOT OF LISBETH SLANDER FROM MOVIE

Meanwhile Slander meets her newly appointed legal guardian Nils Bjurman. in her younger days Lisbeth was socially hostile and failed to cooperate with legal system and her unresponsiveness to respond to the queries asked by the teachers in her school earned her a tag of psycho and opened the doors to counselors and physiologists. And due to her condition she was put under guardianship system  at the age of 18.Guardian is person who is legally responsible for the conduct of the ward and has a full authority over the funds of the ward. Despite being far from mentally incompetent, Slander has never attempted to overturn this ruling, as her first legal guardian did not intrude greatly into her life or her affairs, and managed to earn her respect. Her first guardian has since suffered a major stroke however, and so Bjurman has now been assigned to take over her case.

Nils Bjurman was a sadist and control freak to his wards. He was recently divorced and had insatiable sexual drive. He tries to exploit the wards for the sexual favors and when it comes to Lisbeth Slander, she was not much different from the former lot of exploited wards of  Nils Bjurman. Nils Bjurman forces Lisbeth to surrender her financial accounts to him and here started the control process. Lisbeth when in need of some money approached Bjurman in his office he firstly refused, but later asked for his personal favor. She felt like killing Bjurman but due to her previous learning’s of "NOT ACTING ON IMPULSE" she held herself back. having no faith in ht e legal system she took the matter in here hands and took some spy cameras and recording systems from her office and rigs Bjurman's place and then it again it happened she was repeatedly abused, raped and tortured and at some point she even feared for her life. She bled for many days and remain isolated and didn't returned to her work at Milton Security. But the story was different now she had evidence now of Bjurman's ominous deeds. She retaliates a few days later by incapacitating him with a taser, tying him up, anally violating him with one of his own sex toys. She also forces him to watch the recording of the tape and threatens to make it public unless he arranges for her to have permanent control over her own accounts. Before she leaves, she tattoos "I am a sadistic pig, a pervert, and a rapist" in large letters on his torso.

BLOMKVIST got busy in the case of Harriet and learns some new things which nobody had noticed in all these years. He later came to know about the investigation taken up by Henrik Vanger about BLOMKVIST and enquirers about the investigator. He discovers that The investigator Lisbeth had hacked into his computer and penetrated herself deep into the Millennium's technological systems to dig put information about him. Recognizing her talents he asks Lisbeth to join him in the investigation of Harriet and finally hires her. Together they discover many evidences of regarding the case. The major breakthrough was the diary of Harriet in which some names and against whom some numbers where written. This leads them to murder spree in SWEDEN which were related to the BIBLE verses and were undertaken in a ritualistic manner representing divine retribution. After enormous efforts they dug out the killer who was Harriet's father Gottfried. Blomkvist and Slander eventually become lovers, but Blomkvist has trouble getting close to Slander; she is an introverted loner who treats virtually everyone she meets with hostility.

Later they both discovered that Martin Harriet's brother who was also the C.E.O. of VANGER companies was behind the murders and disappearances of many, migrant women and was serial killer who was trained by his father Gottfried. Gottfried also sexually abused Martin and Harriet. Blomkvist attempts to confront Martin, but Martin overpowers him, kidnaps him and takes him to a torture chamber hidden in the basement of his house. Martin says that despite all of his other crimes, he is not responsible for Harriet's death or disappearance. He had planned to kill Harriet eventually, but she disappeared before he could take any action. As Martin is about to kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth bursts in and attacks Martin with a golf club, rescuing Blomkvist. Lisbeth frees Blomkvist as Martin escapes and flees in his car. She pursues him on her motorcycle to the highway, where she sees him purposely drive into the ongoing traffic and kill himself.

Blomkvist and Lisbeth discussed the disappearance of Harriet and found a connection that would lead them to Harriet. They, later realized that Harriet was not murdered nor she was kidnapped she eloped from the island that day with the help of Cecilia's sister Anita, Who was one of her best friends. She disappeared in order to escape from her brother, who had been joining their father in sexually abusing her. Using contacts of Lisbeth's hacking community they hacked the phone lines of Cecilia (who lived in Stockholm) and Tracked down Harriett in Australia living under a pseudo name She has had children with her late husband, a man she married while in hiding in Italy. When Confronted by BLOMKVIST, she confirms their account of the case, she also reveals that she was actually responsible for the death of her father (until then presumed accidental). She returns to Sweden, where she is happily reunited with her uncle Henrik and begins to take a leading role in the newly leaderless family business.

Blomkvist reluctantly agrees with Henrik not to publish any article related to Martin and his torture room. He assures Henrik to keep the dark secrets of the family to himself. But in return asks for the compensation to the victim's families . Later he came to know that the evidence of Wennerström which Henrik promised him to give at end of the year, was merely a hoax to lure Blomkvist in the case of Harriet. Because after so many years even Henrik was sure that Blomkvist will get any major breakthrough in the case.

Later Slander breaks into Wennerström’s computer and discovers that his crimes go beyond even what Blomkvist was convicted of libel for printing. Using the evidence she found, Blomkvist prints an expose article and book which destroys Wennerström, who is later found dead under suspicious circumstances. The exposé catapults Blomkvist and Millennium to national prominence.

Ratings (My Favorite critic's part):

MY personal rating to this novel on the scale of 1-10 is 9. As it had everything to excite the reader :- a mystery, murder, suspense, thrill, and proper pace of events the way they happen in this novel is exemplary as they are set in perfect chronological order . And the most important thing it had certain amount of difficulty in the plot specifically where the murder spree of Gottfried is presented and it's intricately related to the bible verses creates the curiosity in the readers mind. Moreover the plot goes i crescendo slow start and maintains the pace with the reader , then it gains momentum tickles the thinking power, and then present the solution and towards the end (when Harriet is found) it limbers down the agony of finishing the novel and all the excitement of the mystery.

So concluding the thing all in all it's a Paisa Vasool (VALUE FOR MONEY) novel.