The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006)

Ugh. Usually second books in a series get better. The author has more experience, maybe they get a better editor if the first book did well. This second book got worse.

Mr. Larsson managed to take two main characters that were sorta odd and sort of brash, but had a solid core of knowing right from wrong in them, and make them totally unlikable cardboard cut outs of people.

After the first book I felt for Lisbeth just a bit and thought that Mikael was growing as a person/character. But in Played with Fire they both act like thugs with only a veneer of civilization. Running around and killing people or holding the fact that your friend has killed people. Not cool.

And the characterization assassination is sad because at its core the simple part of the plot (not all the stuff that was built on top of it) was interesting and could have made for an exciting novel, instead it was hard to get into and plodded along in spots.

Still, there was quite an end of the book, so I'll be reading Hornet's Nest. He successfully pulled me into finishing the trilogy even though I didn't love this book. ( )

I was so underwhelmed by the first book in this series that it has taken me two and a half years to get round to tackling this second instalment. Happily this one was much, much better. It scores on so many levels – mystery, characters, complexity, social commentary...hype finally justified as far as I’m concerned. Here is a proper multi-layered crime novel with plenty to say about the treatment of women at all levels in Western society, a novel of mathematics, human trafficking, journalism and painful blows to the testicles.

There were moments where I was reminded why I didn’t get on with the first book. Salander’s trip round IKEA for example – did we need to know what she bought, right down to the last teaspoon? And then in chapter 16.... “Eriksson paid a visit to Blomkvist’s bathroom and then came back to the sofa”. Talk about superfluous information. Unless of course she went there to spike his aftershave with Ricin. (spoiler: she didn’t)

Largely, though, the obsession with detail was helpful to the story, helped to develop character and build tension. In particular steps are taken to explain Salander’s unusual personality and abilities. She is much more believable now. At one point in the story, she manages to get another poor sap tied up in order to interrogate him, and partway through tells him “This is getting annoyingly slow”. I almost laughed at the irony of this coming from the author who brought us “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. But really, all’s forgiven. I don’t think I’ll leave it two and a half years before I read the final book. ( )

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson, the second in the series is the continued story of Salandar. She has gone off with the money she stole and has spent time away from Sweden and is just returning to find herself in the middle of a murder investigation and she is the primary suspect. In this book we learn a lot more about Salandar. I really don't appreciate the first part of this book and I think the sex is just way too much but after the mystery suspense gets going it gets to be a pretty good read. I listened to it because it was available at overdrive and my library doesn't have much yet. ( )

I think this was a great piece of literary art. I enjoyed how Steig, very thoughtfully, laid out this well planned and interesting masterpiece. I was intrigued until the very last page, and I will begin the third book in this saga this exact same day. Loved this beautiful piece of work! ( )

I like this better than the first one. The plot was more sweeping and less skin crawling. ( )