Monday Mystery Backlist and a GIVEAWAY!

Ordinarily I probably would not include THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson in the Monday Mystery Backlist yet. It's first publication in the United States was September 16, 2008 - not quite a full year yet. But it is a translation for the original that was published in Sweden and copyrighted 2005.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a book that has been waiting in my TBR pile for some time now. I tried to talk my book club into reading it a couple times. They aren't a mystery book club, so they weren't as enamored with the idea as I was. But this book has received rave reviews all over the world, and has of course received additional attention due to the untimely death of Stieg Larsson.

Harriet Vanger disappeared 40 years ago, and the mystery of her disappearance was never solved. Her great uncle Henrik Vanger wants to know what happened to Harriet before he dies. So, he hires disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and super hacker Lisbeth Salander to research and investigate the disappearance. In their attempt to find the answers about Harriet, the duo finds much, much more about the Vanger family and it's many secrets.

Lee Child calls THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO "as vivid as bloodstains on snow." And Harlan Coben says it's "so much more than a thriller, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a dazzling novel of big ideas."

THE GIRL WITH DRAGON TATTOO is available from Alfred A. Knopf in hardcover (978-0-307-26975-1) and from Vintage in trade paper (978-0307454546).

O.k., revisiting this is convincing me that I have got to force this book into my reading schedule far earlier than where it is presently. But, if you're one of the smart cookies who read this first book already, then you may be interested in the reason I chose it for this week's Monday Mystery Backlist title. The fine folks at Random House were ever so generous as to provide me with a brand spankin' new hardcover copy of the second book in Stieg Larsson's trilogy, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, so I could give it away to a lucky reader! I also have some dragon tattoos to go along with this book.

So, if you've already read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO or you need some added motivation to move it up higher on your to be read list, send me an email with your snail mail address and I will enter you in the drawing for THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE. Emails can be sent to forbyone (at) yahoo (dot) com and must be received by midnight (Eastern Time) September 12, 2009. Please enter "Fire" in your subject line so your email doesn't fall into spam never to be seen again. I can only accept entries from those with a U.S. snail mail address.

Good luck!!