The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books
Andrew Adams
Updated on March 17, 2026
Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, published posthumously in Sweden in 2005 after the author’s death in 2004, is propelled both by a search and a discovery. The search is an investigative journalist’s deep dive into a powerful Swedish family. The discovery: the fierce and eponymous tattooed techie Lisbeth Salander, whose skills (hacking), personal agency, and clotted response to trauma are the most compelling elements in a 544-page book that features a missing girl, Nazis, and a torture chamber. Played by Noomi Rapace in the 2009 Swedish film version, and Rooney Mara in the 2011 Hollywood adaptation, Lisbeth also appears in two other Millennium books by Larsson, and three others by David Lagercrantz. The first installment in the series, translated into English by Steven T. Murray under the pseudonym Reg Keeland in 2008, was an international sensation, becoming the first novel to sell a million digital copies (the series has sold 100 million), and racking up awards including Sweden’s Glass Key Award in 2006. —Karl Vick
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