The book starts out as investigating journalist Michael Blomkvist is standing trial for the libel of industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. He had been set up, and he was found guilty, sentenced to 3 months in prison. Blomkvist’s crusading attitude had come to the attention of Henrik Vanger. Vanger wanted to hire Blomkvist to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his niece Harriet 40 years earlier. Vanger wanted to be sure of Blomkvist, so he hired Milton Security to do a background check on him; the person assigned to do the background check was Lisbeth Salander. Vanger was going to ‘buy’ a year of Blomkvist’s life, and after that time, whether he had discovered the truth about his niece or not, Vanger would provide evidence against Wennerström.

Lisbeth was a free-lance researcher, and the best one Milton Security ever had. Her searches were imaginative and she consistently submitted reports that were concise and genuinely devastating to the subject who may have had something to hide. Armansky, her boss, decided she had a special gift, and though he asked, she would never reveal her sources.

Eventually Blomkvist and Salander both became involved in the search for the missing Harriet Vanger, and in doing so, they uncovered much more than a missing teenager.

We all enjoyed this book very much. The character and place names seemed very exotic and foreign to those of us who are not Swedish or have not traveled to Sweden. There were several references to the Pippi Longstocking characters created by Astrid Lindgren, and several of us thought it might be time to look over those stories, too. Other subjects of discussion involved our own encounters with computer security. We talked about fitting into society and how outward appearances can color our own impressions. How do tattoos make you feel about the person who flaunts them?

At one point Blomkvist thought Lisbeth may have had Aspberger’s syndrome because of her apparent lack of social skills. Her personal values were very strictly defined, and she kept to those values, but they did not necessarily coincide with the law. She was an unrepentant and skilled computer hacker and saw no problem with invasion of another’s privacy in pursuit of her goals. We talked about what ‘normal’ is. Was Lisbeth a freak because she had a photographic memory? Because she did not interact socially if she didn’t have to? No small talk for Lisbeth!