Last year I read Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". I liked it. I liked it enough to check out it's sequel,"The Girl Who Played with Fire", from the library and give it a read.
The book starts up about a year after the first. Like the first book it starts very slow for me. We learn that Lisbeth Salander has used the money she stole in the previous book, stole from a villain, to travel the world for a year. When she returns to Sweden things go from bad to worse when she is accused of murder. The murder involves Michael Blomkvist, the other main character of the first book.
As we follow multiple investigation threads, the police, Blomkvist, and Salander's, we gradually piece together the sick world of the female sex trade. As we near the climax this sex trade takes the back seat as we learn how Salander is connected with this dark underworld.
The book ends abruptly but with most of the major loose ends tied up. There is a lot for Salander to answer to. The theft of the money. Shooting, tazing, hacking, and other general mayhem will all have to be addressed, in the third book I presume.
I was happy with this book. My biggest critique would be that it moved way too slow in the first half of the book. There were a lot of coincidences that sometimes stretched the imagination but I think those are necessary for the story telling and can be forgiven. What kept me glued to the pages was Lisbeth Salander, a fascinating character. I look forward to checking out the third book in the series "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest".
Being the slow person that I can be at times I discovered that Stieg Larsson was, in fact, dead. He died shortly after delivering the three manuscripts of his books. This is sad on many levels. It is sad for him. It is sad for his family. It is sad for his readers as they will never read more from this author whose first books have shown so much potential.
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