Book Review – The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium II) by Stieg Larsson
First published, 2006
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
“Blomkvist was known for being a ladies’ man. At best she had been an amusing diversion, someone on whom he had taken pity at a moment when he needed her and there was no one better available. But he had swiftly moved on to yet more amusing company. She cursed herself for lowering her guard and letting him into her life.
“When she came to her senses again she had cut off all contact with him. It had not been easy, but she had steeled herself. The last time she saw him she was standing on a platform in the tunnelbana at Gamla Stan and he was sitting in the train on his way downtown. She had stared at him for a whole minute and decided that she did not have a grain of feeling left, because it would have been the same as bleeding to death.”
p69-70, Chapter Four, The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium II) by Stieg Larsson
This second instalment in the Millennium series, The Girl Who Played With Fire follows our erstwhile heroes, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist in the immediate aftermath of the Vanger/Wennerström affair.
With Lisbeth suddenly, and secretly, rich, and totally unwilling to communicate with Blomkvist while she sorts out her feelings, there’s not a moment to take a breath for the folks at the Millennium offices.
A new freelancer, Dag Svensson, comes to Blomkvist and Berger with an explosive story about sex trafficking in Sweden. Dag’s partner, Mia, started the idea rolling round his mind in the first place and she is about to receive her doctorate in the subject. Starting with Mia’s research and culminating in Dag’s journalistic instinct and talent, he not only has the basis for an entire issue of the magazine, he also has an almost-completed manuscript for the team to produce from their new book publishing company. His evidence is irrefutable and there are plenty of high profile people about to topple from their pedestals.
But when Dag and Mia are shot in their apartment, and the monster with the stomach tattoo, Advokat Bjurman, shows up dead, the only piece of evidence is a gun with Lisbeth Salander’s fingerprints on it. Will anyone believe that the girl who’s spent the majority of her life in institutions isn’t crazy? And how will they prove it?
An absolute rollercoaster with an international setting and a killer ending. I was hooked from the get-go. The action scenes were high impact and the pace never let up. Amazing stuff. On to book three.
Petrina Binney - Author 