mass market paperback, 724 pages
English language
Published July 21, 2009 by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.
In the electrifying follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker, is the focus and fierce heart of the story.
Mikael Blomkviwt - crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium - has decided to publish a story exposing an extensive sex trafficking , implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.
On the eve of publication, the two reporters responsible for the story are brutally murdered. But perhaps more shocking for Blomkvist, the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander.
Now, as Blomkviwt - alone in his belief in her innocence - plunges into his own investigation of the slayings, Salander is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.
(back cover)
Another slow starter from Larsson, but as the book picks up pace it just gets more and more gripping. I was completely floored (in a good way) by the ending, so much so that I started the next book in the series within 10 minutes of finishing this one.
This one played a lot like a long episode of CSI (which I don't enjoy). Also, I'm not the kind of person who cares very much about eloquent sentence structure, but Larsson's awkward phrasing makes me chuckle - to the point that it too oft interrupted the flow of reading.
I did like the book, though. Larsson continues to do a great job with the suspense, action, and character development in this second book from the trilogy. Also, on a personal note: it may just be my horrible memory, but similar to my reaction to the first book, I didn't remember most of the details from the film (even though I loved all of the Swedish-language movies from this trilogy). The third book is in the mail!
