Mikael Blomkvist is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. He is a main character of Larsson's award-winning Millennium series, along with Lisbeth Salander.

Biography

Blomkvist is an investigative journalist and co-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium based in Stockholm, Sweden. At the start of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he loses a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors. At the same time, he is offered a freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises and patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to help him solve the cold case of his great-niece, Harriet Vanger, who has been missing for 36 years and presumed dead. Blomkvist reluctantly accepts the case in exchange for valuable information Vanger claims to have that would help him in his case against Wennerström.

During this time, Blomkvist meets and begins to work with Salander, who Vanger had hired prior to investigate Blomkvist while considering him for the job. The two form an important relationship, in which each of their skill-sets prove invaluable in solving the Vanger case; they also become lovers. At the end of the first novel, Salander saves Blomkvist from Vanger's great-nephew (and Harriet's brother) Martin, a serial killer who has been murdering women throughout Sweden for decades. Using her phone tapping contacts in London, she and Blomkvist discover that Harriet Vanger is alive and living in Australia. When Vanger's information about Wennerström proves to be useless, Salander uses her computer hacking skills to get sensitive information about Wennerström that is much more incriminating than what Blomkvist had in the past. With the information uncovered by Salander, Blomkvist publishes an exposé article and book that ruins Wennerström, clears his own name, and propels his magazine to one of the most respected and profitable in Sweden. Salander abruptly ends their relationship at the end of the novel, however, after seeing him with his lover and business partner, Erika Berger.

In the following novel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, two of Blomkvist's colleagues are murdered and Salander is identified as the prime suspect. Blomkvist becomes her only supporter and strives to clear her name, even as she wants nothing to do with him and refuses to help him in any way. He eventually discovers that the murders are part of an elaborate conspiracy between The Section — a faction of SÄPO, the Swedish Secret Service — and Salander's father, former Soviet spy Alexander Zalachenko, whom The Section had illegally helped to defect. He also learns that Salander was raped by one of the murder victims, Nils Bjurman, and that The Section conspired to have her committed to a mental hospital as a child in order to protect Zalachenko. He follows Salander to Zalachenko's farm, where he finds her near death after a confrontation with her father. He calls an ambulance, saving her life.

In the third and final novel of the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, Blomkvist risks his life researching the full extent of SÄPO's crimes, and persuades his sister Annika, a lawyer, to represent Salander, who has been cleared of the original murder suspicions, but is now charged with attempted murder and two cases of grievous bodily harm, as well as several other offences including possession of illegal weapons. With help from government prosecutors and Salander's fellow hackers, Blomkvist finds proof of the conspiracy and publishes an exposé article on the case, which results in several SÄPO agents being arrested. Using this information, Annika clears Salander's name. Blomkvist shows up at Salander's flat that night, and they reconcile as friends.

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