Book 28 - The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

I've got too much stuff to do, so no preamble this time. Let's just get down to the review, shall we?

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire is Stieg Larsson's second installment in the posthumously published trilogy about Lisbeth Salander, the young, brilliant, tattooed, and socially distant computer hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, the middle-aged, doggedly tenacious investigative journalist. Salander's prodigious computer skills allow her to gain access to information that would be off-limits to most, while Blomkvist employs his reporter's instincts and persistent nature to get to the truth of whatever he investigates. Their work together in the first book managed not only to solve a forty-year mystery but to bring down the evil financial empire of a wealthy industrialist and arms dealer. Together they make a formidable team.

But alas, they are no longer together. Salander, once Blomkvist's lover and friend, has cut all ties with him, and refuses to answer his calls or emails. In fact, she has basically cut all ties with everyone and is travelling around the world. So how is a woman who is considered by the state to be incompetent, and has only a modest income from her job as an investigator for a security firm able to do this? Well, it seems she used her computer skills to claim a 20 billion Kronor consolation prize from the Cayman island accounts of the arms dealer she helped take down.

Upon her return, she buys a huge new place of her own, and bequeaths her old place to a part-time female lover. Snooping into Blomkvist's computer, she stumbles upon a name from her past: Zala. Driven to investigate, she visits the home of a couple who is working with Blomkvist on an expose of the sex trafficking industry. The next day, the couple is found dead, and Lisbeth is the chief suspect. Later another body turns up, the body of her state "guardian," which reinforces the notion that Salander is the culprit.

A media frenzy and a nationwide manhunt ensues. Armansky, Salander's employer at the security firm, doesn't know what to believe, but has sufficient doubts such that he launches an investigation of his own, and makes his resources available to the police. Blomkvist, convinced of her innocence and suspecting that the real killer's motive was something in the sex-trade expose that was about to be published, launches an investigation as well. Salander is also investigating, but her target is the mysterious Zala, a name that evokes so many painful memories.

I hadn't originally intended on reading this quite so soon after the first one. There are only three, and of course there won't be any more, so I wanted to savor each one a bit before launching into the next. I'm glad I didn't wait though, because I thought this book was even better than the first. I thought the plot was more complex, and the action moves much more quickly than in the first one. If you like a good mystery thriller with a dark edge, this is a book you should check out!