When I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, there was one huge thing that I did not realize. Steig Larsson was a well-respected journalist whose books The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and the third book in the Millennium series have been or are in the process of being published posthumously. The first book, while being electrifying could have easily ended the entire story an ambiguous note- however the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire is without a doubt one huge TO BE CONTINUED...
Larsson's writing style does not loose it's page-turning ability. The themes of accepted casual and adventurous sex as well as (no relation to the former topic) violence against women are still very prevalent. Though the weakness of Fire in comparison to Tattoo is that while both Lisbeth and Mikael are still main characters- the point of view shifts to many other characters (ie: PIs, detectives, gangsters, etc.) that while interesting, I ultimately invest very little care in- unlike Salander and Blomkvist whom I LOVE. I was still 100% invested in the story, but somehow the writing and plot in Tattoo seemed much tighter and more seamless than that of Fire.
Millennium magazine is planning a themed issue and sister-book on the subject of sex-trafficking in Sweden; pointing fingers at many "johns" who have paid for the (usually abused) services of underage girls. While Mikael is close to the investigation, Lisbeth eventually becomes implicated in the aftermath of the research by the police.
I am very excited for when The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is released! Though who knows how reliable the US release date will be? (I believe the UK date is October 1) Despite my liking Tattoo far more, I still cannot wait for the third installment- hopefully Hornet will be available in North America ASAP.
A-
*2010 Dilys Award Nominee
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