Linkmeister

Finished it

I grumbled that the first book ended somewhat anticlimactically. Not so this one. It ends with a rush. There's action, resolution, revenge and vindication.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is a much more satisfying book than the first. Salander's background, which was left shrouded in the first book, is laid out bit-by-bit in the final 100 pages.

From the review I linked to in the previous post:

The plot centers on the double murder of a young Stockholm couple. He is a journalist and she is a researcher. Together they are investigating the sexual exploitation of teenage girls from Latvia and Estonia smuggled into Sweden. The gun found at the crime scene has Salander's fingerprints.

How could that be? The police think the case is open-and-shut, but it's not a gun she carried around, nor is it one that the victims had in their home. Her former employers both describe her as someone completely different from the person the state formerly declared incompetent, and the principal investigator doesn't understand why.

The book revolves around her friends' attempts to figure out what's going on, who framed her, and why. Their attempts are complicated by the fact that she doesn't trust anyone and so won't communicate directly with them. In fact, this is one of the most intriguing plot devices I've ever encountered; the principals don't speak to one another except via computer.

I liked the first book, but it doesn't hold a candle to the second. I began to think I was on an out-of-control train or bus. This is an absolutely fabulous thriller.

Posted by Linkmeister at August 10, 2009 11:57 AM | TrackBack