Title : The Girl who Played with Fire (Millennium #2)
Author : Stieg Larsson
Publication date : July 28th 2009
by Alfred A. Knopf
It has been a long long time since I read the first book. I admit I kind of forget about Lisbeth and Mikael. I wasn't really enthusiastic to continue reading this series because, well, it's a crime book, but lately I found out that the fourth book of Millennium, so I thought, why not? So, that's why this second book finally landed on my hands.
Lisbeth was doing a tour around the world. She decided to stop communicating with Mikael Blomkvist cold turkey leaving him confused. She found out that Mikael was planning to publish facts about sex trade crime and discovered some dangerous information along the way. Having her finger prints on a murder weapon, Lisbeth become Sweden's most wanted person overnight.
I have to say that I enjoyed The Girl who Played with Fire more than its predecessor. This one is action packed and I as the reader was served with more of Lisbeth's kick-assness (is that even a word?). It also a more personal read because I also got to know about Lisbeth past and the background story on why she was labeled as incompetent.
...but at the age of twenty-five she lacked the education, and she had no wish to herself pushing fifty and still plodding away doing investigations of crooks in the corporate world. It was an amusing hobby -- not a lifetime career.
Another thing that makes me as happy as a 5 year old with ice cream is that this novel is so much non-crime reader friendly. It's less gruesome, but still has good complex plot that good crime book requires.
As mentioned before, this book served Lisbeth's childhood, teenage years and why she ended up labelled with troubled mentality. I am no fan of her violent side, to be honest. If she's a real person, you really don't want be near the wrong side of her. I also don't understand Mikael's tendency of sleeping around with any lady he finds. Is this somewhat cultural? I have no idea whatsoever about Swedish culture, if I were be able to understand it even a wee bit, I think I could have absorbed the story better.
He was good at riddles and he was unmatchably stubborn. She had found that out in Hedestad. When sank his teeth into something he simply would not let go.
5 rating for The Girl who Played with Fire. This is a great read for both crime readers and non crime readers. To sum it up, I thank David Lagercrantz for writing The Girl in the Spider's Web. If it not for the latest book, I am quite sure that I would have forgotten about this series altogether. Over to you! Have you read this series? What's the most impressive crime book you've ever read?
