The story centers around genius hacker, Lisbeth Salander, and crusading journalist, Mikael Blomkvist who find themselves facing off against criminals in their own unique ways. The main focus of the novel is the sex trade in Sweden, and a large part of the novel deals with why the sex trade is still able to flourish despite strict government regulations. Ultimately, it is a detective story though. Blomkvist tries to find the people who killed his friends and colleagues, while Salander tries to find and get back at the people who are responsible for putting her head on the chopping block. The novel is a bit dark at times, but that is really to be expected considering the content.
The series seems like a cross between Sherlock Holmes, All the President's Men and Sex in the City, if you can imagine that. The Girl who Played with Fire moved a little slower at some points then The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but somehow in less then a week I found myself on the other end of the book and wanting more. Unfortunately, the final book in the series, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, won't be out until May 25. The really sad part is the fact that this will be the last we get to read from Larsson, due to his untimely death a month before the first book went on sale in Sweden. I guess, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that the rumored 4th book will be published at some point, but even if it isn't, Larsson's work was more then enough to reignite my love of mysteries.
I give The Girl who Played with Fire 4.5 stars out of 5.
Makes me want to go dig up some more mysteries to read...
... or solve a mystery or two of my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment