16 April 2012

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Book 8/50

the girl who played with fire book cover
Although slightly longer than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this book was a much faster read. And while there certainly could have been some major edits to this installment of the series, I enjoyed reading this book.

One of the things I found most interesting about reading this book was how I imagined the characters differently throughout the story. Having seen both film versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (something I had not done prior to reading the first book), I found myself picturing Mikael Blomkvist as Daniel Craig at some times (in truth, the majority of the book) and as Michael Nyqvist at others (mainly when Blomkvist did something lame, like punch a fist into the air in celebration). Lisbeth Salander, on the other hand, was imagined as more of an amalgam of Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara. Go figure.

But you probably want to hear about the story.

This book picks up shortly after the end of the first. Salander has left Sweden to get a boob job before hitting the Caribbean beach scene. I'm not making that up. Blomkvist and the rest of the Millennium crew are hard at work on an issue about a sex trade scandal that makes the Wennerström Affair look like a parking violation. Nils Bjurman the Sadistic Pig and Rapist continues to hate the tummy tattoo Salandar gave him and begins plotting his revenge.

Salandar is forced back to Sweden after a tornado (yes, a tornado) strikes St. George's. She carefully avoids everyone she's ever met with the exception of Mimmi Wu, her former lesbian lover. Again, I'm not making any of this up. While she settles back into her anti-social lifestyle (but now with an all-new apartment and IKEA furniture), Blomkvist is working with Dag Svensson, an up-and-coming journalist, and Mia Johansson, Svensson's sweetheart and doctoral candidate, to write an exposé on Sex Trafficking With High Ranking Officials and Respected Members of Swedish Society. When Svensson and Johansson are shot down brutally in their apartment (and right before Easter!), Salander is named Sweden's Most Wanted Murderess. Chaos ensues.

Turns out that Nils Bjurman was killed the same night AND with the same gun that shot Svensson and Johansson. The gun belongs to Bjurman, but guess whose fingerprints are all over it? That's right. Sweden's Little Orphan Annie.

As the reader of the series, we are on Team Lisbeth. As are Blomkvist, Salander's former boss Dragan Armansky, Salander's former guardian Holger Palmgren, and professional boxer Paolo Roberto. Seriously. Not making this up. There are a few members of the police force and the Millennium staff who haven't committed entirely to Team Lisbeth but are pretty sure she wasn't the responsible party either. Then there's the 99% who think she did it.

Now, several investigations into the murders are going on simultaneously. Obviously, the police are looking into the matter, but that investigation is split between the Justice Patrol with Officers Bublanski and Modig and the Shoot First/Ask Later Meatheads comprised of the rest of the force. Blomkvist starts his own investigation in the sacred name of "journalism" (but we all know it's really because he like-likes Salander since he keeps passing her notes during first period). Armansky gets Milton Security on board with the police investigation as Salander used to work for them and they know her better than anyone can know someone that doesn't want things known about her. Eventually Paolo Roberto joins the investigation. The book follows each of these investigations even though the police investigation and Blomkvist's work were sufficient on their own.

Although the "twist" at the end was a bit predictable and the climax was somewhat unbelievable (more so than an actual professional boxer being BFF with Lisbeth Salander), I appreciated how this installment ended. We were left wanting more but given enough so that the wait wouldn't kill us.

I don't want to say much more than that, since this book really was a good read. If you haven't picked it up yet, I highly recommend it. I liked it better than the first, and way more than Modelland. If I weren't thirty miles from my copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, I'd be devouring that one right now.

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