This is the third book in Larsson’s
Millennium trilogy and picks up exactly where volume two ended, which is just
as well as “Played with Fire” left a lot of loose ends not to mention badly
damaged bodies.
There is less mayhem here, more intrigue as
several agencies try to unravel the mystery that is Lisbeth Salander. A couple of police forces, two factions
within the Swedish state security organisation, a corrupt psychologist and of
course Millennium magazine’s Mikael Blomkvist after a good story, are variously
trying to get her locked up, shut up, eliminated or rescued from herself.
Meanwhile Salander lies in hospital under guard with only her lawyer allowed to
visit; not that that stops the hacker extraordinary from getting involved
remotely once she gets illicit access to the internet.
It gets complicated. But at least the timeline is simple and
events race along so it reads less than the 750 pages. In truth it could lose two hundred pages if
Larsson cut down on the spurious detail, particularly geographic; those
familiar with Stockholm may find the street level information interesting, but
those not can either ignore it or spend time with the maps provided. There is also a side story concerning
Blomkvist’s lover Erika Berger that could be omitted without any loss.
As usual, Blomkvist gets his end away and
runs rings round everyone, but Lisbeth Salander remains the star turn in a
typically violent finale.
And finale it will be for me. Although the series has been continued after
Stieg Larsson’s death by David Lagercrantz I have had my fill thank you very
much.
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