The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium Trilogy, #2)

by Stieg Larsson

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

It has been over a year since Lisbeth became a billionaire and has taken an exotic trip around the world. Soon after her return to Sweden she learns that her old guardian Bjurman, is plotting a revenge against her putting Lisbeth on her guard and eventually into hiding after she is known as Sweden's Most Wanted for a double murder. The murdered couple were good friends of Mikael Blomkvist and helping Millenium expose the country's sex trade. While most believe her to be guilty as sin Mikael does not see how or why Salander would commit these crimes and goes about to prove her innocence.

I was still on the edge of my seat while reading The Girl Who Played With Fire I did find some of the plot to be rather tangled and the link between Bjurman and the sex trade to be rather poor and took me some time to completely understand it as it wasn't written in black and white.

Lisbeth Salander really makes these novels for me. She is such a strong character and is what one might picture a grown-up Pippi Longstockings to be, a little cooky and plays by her own rules. Throughout the book we learn more of Salander's past shaping her "talk to the hand" attitude and that she herself is a victim of circumstance and has a vulnerable side to her too.

I actually thought the ending had a Star Wars "Luke I am your Father" aura to it. Putting aside the Star Wars comparison I hardly moved for the last 150 pages of the book. I was sucked in, unable to do anything else until I learned of Lisbeth Salander's fate. Amazing.