The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

⚖The case for it

The book that made Scandinavian noir a global phenomenon, selling 80+ million copies posthumously. Lisbeth Salander, the most memorable new crime protagonist of the 21st century, and journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigate a decades-old disappearance within a corrupt family empire. Larsson wrote feminist rage into the thriller form. The world responded.

— the canon

✕The case against

One hundred pages of Swedish financial journalism stand between you and the actual mystery, and Larsson makes you read every word, plus the sandwich inventories and laptop specifications. Blomkvist is a rumpled middle-aged reporter every woman in the book wants to sleep with, and the violence against women is condemned at a length that begins to resemble appetite.

— the honest librarian