The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second installment in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy. Once again Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are the protagonists, and once again the novel is filled with characters with difficult to pronounce Swedish names that look similar enough that I confused characters more than once. Seriously, there’s a Svensson, a Johansson, a Fransson, and an Eriksson. But I digress. The plot revolves around two murders, where Salander's the prime suspect and Mikael is working to prove her innocence, of which he’s convinced even though with Lisbeth in hiding he has no contact with her. Blomkvist is also in the midst of publishing a story on sex trafficking in Sweden, which implicates high ranking members of various government offices, and may be the reason for the murders. With Lisbeth being hunted by not only the police, but also mysterious bounty hunters, the suspence kept me turning the pages.

The first book in the series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (reviewed here), underwhelmed me, especially considering its popularity. However, I found myself enjoying The Girl Who Played With Fire much more than the first installment. At this point Lisbeth Salander is practically a superhero in her ability to thwart danger, but I can live with that. She's a compelling character, and in this story we learn more of her background and some of the secrets that weren’t revealed in the previous novel. Even though I’d put the Stieg Larsson novels in the same category as the works of Dan Brown (meaning they’re not exactly serious literature), this was a fun vacation read and worth recommending. It's the kind of book where I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot, so I’ll just end by saying that it does conclude with a bit of a cliffhanger and now I’ll have to read the next installment.

One last note – I saw the movie trailer for the U.S. version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and I have to admit it looked pretty cool. And it’s directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network), so more bonus points. It will definitely be added to my list of movies that I’d like to see but never will because Mrs. won’t let me. Also, you know how when you read a book you picture a character in a certain way? I definitely wasn’t picturing Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist. I guess I was picturing someone a bit more less action hero and a little more studious.

Next Up: I’m reading faster than I’m reviewing, so next is a review of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell