the girl who played with fire :: stieg larsson

Title: The Girl Who Played with Fire
Author: Stieg Larsson
Publisher: Knopf, 2009
Read: August 2009; NYC
Format: Kindle

In This One: We reconnect with Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist over a year after the Vanger investigation and Wennerstrom Affair (of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – see earlier post). Blomkvist is back at the publishing helm of his Millennium magazine, which soon plans to release a book and special issue on sex trafficking. One night, Mikael finds the writers of the book and article – a couple – murdered in their apartment; a gun with Lisbeth’s finger prints on it is found at the scene. On the other side of town, on the same night, Salander’s court-appointed guardian is also discovered murdered. The police investigation soon focuses on Lisbeth as its prime suspect. Though Lisbeth has cut Blomkvist out of her life, they work separately - but together - to unearth the truth about the killings.

Top Observations and Thoughts

1. Like TGWTDT, there is sometimes too much detail and time spent on trivialities (e.g., a list of every ikea item Salander furnishes her posh new apartment with and exactly how much she spent at the store)

2. The villains are awesomely scary. There are many and each presents a different kind of deviousness, ranging from the seemingly physically-invincible giant to the various sinister tormentors, unjustly in positions of authority.

3. I think it would be helpful to know more about the geographic layout of Sweden. As characters dash from location to location, it would be useful to know how long it should take to get from setting A to setting B. Especially at the end, the book is intensely suspenseful on every page. Knowing these details could maybe have taken the edge off.

4. A lot goes on in this book. There is a ton of action and several different storylines, most of which converge. Yet, there are also some seemingly purposeless threads. Why? Maybe it’s because the books are in a series and they're meant to be significant later?

5. Larsson offers a delicious plenty of red herrings. I'm easily duped, but there are so many evil characters you never know which one is ultimately to blame. Until the end of course.

6. Even though the characters are the same, TGWPWF avoids becoming a formulaic series. This book is a different type of suspense novel than his last: you know who (prob) did it, but we wait to find out the interconnectedness of all the evil men. The effect is equally riveting--maybe even more so--as the straightforward suspense in TGWTDT.

7. I appreciate that the almost wholly plot-driven novel adds in a little layer of complexity through its anti-misogynist subtext.

This book is awesome. I don’t read a lot of suspense, but having bought into the ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ phenomenon, I eagerly attacked this book as soon as it was released in the US. My expectations were high—I really liked the first book and had heard that the follow up was even better. It totally was.

The pageturneriest page turner I’ve ever read.

5 out of 5 stars