After hearing so many good things about it, and finally picking up and reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was pretty happy with the decision. I was introduced to the character of Lisbeth Salander, a very unusual genius with exceptional computer hacking skills, a photographic memory, and a violent-when-provoked nature among other skills. However, somehow my mind completely forgot that the book was part of a series. So when I was reminded of the existence of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Series, I wasted no time checking out the next book in the series: The Girl Who Played With Fire.
I’ve mentioned a couple times before that often sequels don’t tend to live up the expectations created by their predecessors. The introduction of a new idea or character(s) (whether that be via a book or a movie) generates enough high-quality content that keeping it up becomes a challenge. But Larsson never really follows conventions, does he? This second book in his Millennium Series was absolutely marvellous. I’ve rarely been hooked by a book like I was with this one. I spent about a week reading the first half and then finished the second half in one Saturday. There were no boring sections, no stretched-out parts and for the first time, I have nothing negative to say about a book. The most amazing part was that even in parts where nothing extraordinary was happening (say, just two people having a conversation), the characters were so well-developed that it was interesting just to listen to their thoughts.
While her introduction and role in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sparked widespread fascination among readers, Lisbeth was still a secondary character who came along with celebrity journalist Mikael Blomkvist as he tried to solve a 40-year-old murder investigation. In sharp contrast to that, Larsson made her the undeniable primary character of this book. In fact, the first 200 pages barely even mention Blomkvist. This was one of the biggest reasons I loved this book. We spend a lot of time with her unique and complicated character. How she thinks, why she acts in certain ways, what drives her to do things, all slowly come forward, including her mysterious past. In fact, even watching her trying to solve maths problems for fun was fascinating.
No spoilers
The story followed the journey of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist as they get trapped into a web of sex trafficking. What was going to be a highly controversial and explosive magazine article and book about Sweden’s sex trafficking cartel (that would expose many esteemed men of society) turns into a nightmare when the author of the book and the primary researcher are suddenly murdered. And in the most extraordinary circumstances, Lisbeth becomes the prime suspect. To make matters worse, the body of her legal guardian (and rapist) Nils Bjurman is also found, making her seem even more guilty. Now on the run for three murders, she goes underground. Trapped between the two worlds, Mikael, one of the few people to believe in her innocence, races to find her and prove her innocence while also trying to find out who killed his friends. The only clue is the ominous name Zala which keeps popping up everywhere he turns.
A big reason I thought the book was incredible was the suspense Larsson builds by cutting from one character to another as we keep track of the multiple investigations going on. On one side we have the likeable criminal inspector Bublanski and his team trying to hunt down Salander. Then we have Mikael Blomkvist and the team at Millennium magazine doing things their own way trying to prove her innocence. Her former boss, private investigator Armansky is also hell-bent on finding the truth about her. And finally Lisbeth herself is hunting for Zala and coming to terms with the horrors of her childhood (references to some event from her childhood called “All the Evil” are throughout the book).
One final thing I enjoyed about the book is Larsson’s obsession with coffee. Almost every scene has the characters drinking coffee. Every introduction between two characters includes the host offering the guest coffee, which the guest never refuses. Even early morning or late night scene never fails to mention that the characters are drinking coffee. Even when Blomkvist was looking around in Salander’s multi-million dollar apartment, the most fascinating thing he found there was the professional espresso machine. As someone who also loves good coffee, it was quite amusing to see the characters constantly drown themselves in the beverage. On looking up a little, I later found that Larsson himself drank quite a lot of coffee, even by Swedish standards, so it is not entirely surprising that his characters are addicted to it too.
Spoilers Ahead
I was not expecting the book to end on a cliffhanger. When The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ended, pretty must all loose ends were tied, with the mystery solved and the killer revealed and dealt with. Even Mikael’s struggle against Wennerström ended with him becoming a celebrity, Wennerström’s empire collapsing and Lisbeth secretly becoming a billionaire by stealing part of Wennerström’s illegal fortune. However, this book ended with Lisbeth in the hospital struggling to stay alive, Zala (who turned out to be Lisbeth’s father) also in the hospital thanks to Lisbeth and the real killer, Zala’s son and Lisbeth’s half-brother, Roberto Niedermann, still at large. I did like the two cartoony James Bondian villains: a hulking blond giant, incapable of feeling pain (Niedermann), and his evil, physically disfigured master, who happens to be a former Soviet agent with ties to the underworld (Zala). I had to immediately go to the library and get the next and final book in Larsson’s original trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest and can’t wait to read it.
Kavi Reads 
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