The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Book 1: Millennium) by Stieg Larsson

The Swedish title for this book is Men Who Hate Women. I found some interesting facts regarding the author before I set out to read his Millennium trilogy. Below I have cut and pasted a few fun facts, you can read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004), who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind Khaled Hosseini.”

NAME CHANGE
“Larsson's first name originally was Stig which is the standard spelling. In his early twenties, he changed it to avoid confusion with his friend Stig Larsson, who would go on to become a well-known author well before Stieg did. At the time, they were amateur photographers and it was in this capacity that they wished to prevent any misunderstanding; neither had yet published a book. Stieg Larsson, in later years, would tell the story that the two men had tossed a coin to decide who was to change his name, but this is disputed by Stig Larsson. The pronunciation is the same regardless of spelling.”

THE NOVELS
“At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.”

DEATH AND AFTERMATH
“Larsson died in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a heart attack. There were rumors that his death was in some way induced, because of death threats received as editor of Expo, but these have been denied by Eva Gedin, his Swedish publisher.”

INFLUENCES
“When Larsson was 15 years old he witnessed the gang rape of a girl, which led to his lifelong abhorrence of violence and abuse against women. The author never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, who is also a rape victim. This inspired the themes of sexual violence against women in his books.” Goodreads (additional reviews)