I Read Books: The Girl Who Played With Fire

 

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Lisbeth Salander is back, she’s got billions of kroner and new boobs. But she’s also still officially mentally incapable and her guardian, who raped her, wants revenge for the humiliation and blackmail she returned on him. Her guardian is a regular lawyer now, but once upon a time he worked for Sapo, the security police, and he still has contacts.

Also back is Mikael Blomkvist, whose magazine is planning a big exposé on sex trafficking. This reaches into the press, business, the justice system and even into Sapo. A mysterious name has come up, Zala.

Returning to Sweden, Salander checks in on Blomkvist’s computer, which she hacked. She knows Zala. She has a connection. She goes to see the journalist working on the exposé.

He ends up dead, as does her guardian, and Salander is on the run. I noted in my thoughts on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo some of what I thought made it work, and again we have a lot of specificity, and how everything is woven throughout society. Bringing in a weird, unstoppable villain, and also a champion boxer who is both Slander’s friend and has an immigrant background are very deliberate choices. And all the villains are rapists and abusers of women. Again we also have some secret family history, this time involving Salander and reaching out to her rather than her and Blomkvist researching it themselves and getting themselves caught up in it. And having broken their relationship – Salander can’t trust – they have to re-build it.

Read This: For a superior thriller that interweaves personal and political plots expertly
Don’t Read This: For all it’s cleverness and reasoning it hinges on Salander refusing to talk to those who can help, the fallback of every thriller (and sitcom)