Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

these series/books were written by very talented Stieg Larsson, a brilant mind, who died before his books were published.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson

he was traumatized as a young teen when he saw three of his friends gang rape a young girl.

"The author never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, and this inspired the themes of sexual violence against women in his books.[31]"

Very good series, never saw the US verison.

wasn't that all the rage like 5 years ago?
They were trying to sell the books+ movie like some sort of harry potter for suburban adults.
It even started a mini scandinavian-thriller craze, lots of tourists were going to visit norway or wherever it was written. They made a couple cash-in series like Wallander and many scandinavian-thriller books were written since.
It's over now thankfully.