As for the English titles, my guess is that the publisher prefered the repetition of “girl who” because it links the books thematically, which is a common style for mystery series. I also think the colloquialism “castles in the air” and “can of gasoline” don’t work quite as well in English, so the (UK) publisher chose ones that are more familiar to an English-speaking audience.

Apart from maybe sounding less clunky and/or more marketable, I think this change shifts the focus of the novels, especially in the first one, in which Blomkvist is as central as Salander, yet the title construes the novel as being mostly about her.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Glad you liked it! You’ll enjoy the others…the 3rd is particularly satisfying.

I’ll refrain from further musings so’s to not be too spoiler-y.

Now I must go read the rest of the series. Thank you, internet, for providing me with instant BookCrack.

The main character, Lisbeth, is a rape victim, not a rapist. As for the “cheating”, one of the main characters has an open marriage, and has an extra-marital relationship with the full knowledge and consent of her husband. We’re neither supposed to cheer for it nor condemn it—it’s portrayed as a personal choice between consenting adults.

(I’m not bugged that their is rape and cheating, just that they are supposedly shown as good things the reader should cheer for)

Larsson tells you what happened, but the tone is matter-of fact and journalistic instead of masturbatory. He never gets into that really nasty fetishistic second-by-second description of torture/rape/violence that a lot of crime writers do. That kind of writing always infuriates and sickens me; I wouldn’t recommend a book that featured scenes like that.

But I’d love to read these books if I could handle the violence. I just know that once I read one, I won’t be able to stop until I finish them, and if they’re too violent for me I’ll have nightmares for the rest of the summer, and won’t get any sleep.