Book # 27 THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST By: Stieg Larsson

**Contains SPOILERS.

This book is set to be released in The United States in the Summer of 2010, but I have loved the Millennium trilogy so much that I paid a hefty shipping fee to order the book from amazon.co.uk- TOTALLY WORTH IT.

We open with the extensively wounded Lisbeth Salander being brought to the hospital with the help of Blomkvist. At this point the Millennium team has gathered an extensive amount of evidence against a small, corrupt section of Sapo in the Swedish Government. Salander is arrested upon her arrival at the hospital. During the time of her imprisonment Salander and a small team of unlikely, but loyal friends delve into research to uncover the corruption that locked up Salander in a mental institution as a twelve year-old girl to keep her quiet about her father's position as a malicious and violent spy.

I'd say that this book has less "action-packed" sequences as much of it is devoted to developing a solid case against "The Section" for Lisbeth's defense. There are still a few nerve-racking moments and an incredibly satisfying final 100 pages. However, I'm happy to say that the decline in action does not decrease the quality of the writing or overall page-turning appeal of the story.

I think that Sieg Larsson might have been one of the most feminist men in recent years. In other crime-oriented novels women often serve as candy to ensure that the novel has sexual tension, femme fatales, or damsels in distress. Even in Dan Brown's novels where the women are always smart and capable- his most popular books still tend to have women as a single supporting player in a cast of men. Larsson writes completely fascinating, versatile female characters who hold there own and often outshine the men, something I've rarely seen in a male author. He not only wrote "the girl with the dragon tattoo"aka: Lisbeth Salander, but also brilliant and likable women like Erika Berger, Malin Erikkson, Harriet Vanger, Inspector Modig, and Inspector Figuerola. Larsson is also responsible for what might be my new favorite male character EVER, Mikael Blomkvist. One of the things that makes Mikael is that he's completely unintimidated and embraces strong women while never feeling that his masculinity is threatened. He actually ends up being one of the most masculine and sexiest characters I've read in recent memory. Larsson is no doubt a master of weaving a story, but even better he's a creator of a story that does not contain a single weakly-made character.

I am very sad that the trilogy is now complete, though I have no doubt that I will re-read it a few times in the future for my own enjoyment.

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