So unfortunately I watched the film (Swedish edition) before reading this, which was probably the wrong order.

The mystery and the characters are truly excellent. The main plot arc is incredibly well crafted and Larsson gives no 'clues' about who the killer is which must be a lot harder than it seems given how poorly other writers seem to do it. I really loved how the mystery blossomed into something much more than the initial 'locked room' mystery.

My main nit is the style of the writing (though I don't know how much of that is the translation or the original text). The language is extremely plain and comes across as a literary monotone. I'm not sure if viewing the movie colored my expectation or not, but I'm definitely going to read the second installment before watching the next movie.

The movie, by the way, is really suburb and really adds a lot of emotion to the text. (Though word of warning about both the book and the movie... definitely not for children or the faint of heart!)