The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Stieg Larsson | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 9780739384176 Global Overview for this book
Registered by quinnsmom of Hobe Sound, Florida USA on 9/8/2009
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
This book is the second of three in Larsson's series featuring Lisbeth Salander, the young woman who has her own sense of morality and acts on it accordingly. As this book opens, we find young Lisbeth in the Caribbean after the events of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Meanwhile, the erstwhile reporter Kalle Blomkvist and the team at Millennium are sitting on top of a goldmine of a story. With the help of a woman who is finishing her PhD thesis and that of her husband, who is writing a book based on her findings, Blomkvist is ready to publicly uncover a scandal in which some high-ranking officials are involved in sex trafficking from Russia and other parts of eastern Europe into Sweden. Eventually Lisbeth returns home, and goes into hiding. After a triple homicide, the police become interested in finding her (as does Blomkvist) because the clues at the murder scenes lead directly back to her. At this point, Blomkvist, who is absolutely convinced that Lisbeth is innocent, begins his own investigation, working from a different starting point than that of the police.

I love Lisbeth's character -- she refuses to be a victim even though her life is on the line. She's a take-charge kind of person, apologizing to no one, and she is definitely an example of someone whose past has created her present. She's a heroine unlike any other you'll find in crime writing -- very flawed, dark, unafraid, with a sense of morality that she acts on even if it goes against the social grain. There are very few people in her life whom she trusts, and definitely has no love for official institutions. The book is fast paced, with never a dull moment, and is a solid sequel to Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I would definitely recommend that anyone thinking about this book start with Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, because there are a number of references in the 2nd book that you won't understand if you don't, and because once things start unraveling, you need to have the background of events from the first book, especially with the relationship between Lisbeth and Blomkvist.

Girl Who Played With Fire leaves some things hanging, which I'm sure will be picked up in the upcoming third book (hopefully, since it's the last one). I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good, solid mystery novel and who doesn't mind that the characters are all a bit flawed. Not a cozy mystery at all, so if that's what you're looking for, skip it. Otherwise, sit back and try to clear your day because you won't want to put this one down. Fans of Scandinavian crime novels will absolutely not be disappointed.

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