The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
written by Stieg Larsson
part of Millennium

December 2002. Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He is sentenced to three months in prison, and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs. Soon afterwards, he is invited to meet Henrik Vanger, the retired CEO of the Vanger Corporation, unaware that he had commissioned an investigation into Blomkvist's personal and professional history. This was carried out by Lisbeth Salander, a surveillance agent with Milton Security. girl with the dragon tattoo Blomkvist is promised considerable financial reward and solid evidence against Wennerstrom, in exchange for writing the Vanger family history. Vanger believes that his great-niece, Harriet, was murdered by a member of the family 36 years earlier. Blomkvist moves to the Vanger estate and begins his research into the history of the Vanger family and Harriet's disappearance.

Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of established Swedish figures. So when a young journalist named Dag Svensson approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.