The Girl Who Played with Fire
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I liked this book, the second in the series, much better than the first. Larsson’s method of using disposable characters to create a richness to the story was at first annoying, then interesting. The shear number of characters introduced combined with knowledge that any one of them might not be an important part of the story, certainly keeps the reader guessing – a positive in this genre. Unlike the first book, Larsson leaves very obvious parts of the story untold and creates a vacuum for the next book. The first book was pretty well wrapped up.
Larsson’s writing style is unusual – a heroin, Lisbeth Salander, who is hard to love, or even like sometimes, and a hero, Mikael Blomkvist, who is clearly a proxy for the author, is one of the coolest, best intentioned, most moral people on the face of the planet – have a very strange relationship, but remotely work together to “solve” the crime. Well, that is a component of the crime. Larsson’s crime is wide-reaching and involves crimes of an entire society. The crime against Lisbeth Salander, in this case, is just an example of the author’s larger “crime.” The clear goal of the author is to expose the seedy underbelly of Sweden’s female trafficking, violent acts against women and illicit sex culture. Along the way, corrupt police, the negative influence of the media and the holes in Sweden’s social contract are all exposed. It’s a murder/violence mystery with a social agenda for sure.
Perhaps the most attractive thing about Larsson’s books are that they’re unusual. They are not the standard formulaic whodunit stories. The characters are quirky; the action ebbs and flows; and societal and social points are made very black and white and very obvious. The author has more than a story to tell – he has a point to make and he makes it often.
Like the first book, this book takes a while to get going. Stick with it, though, and you’ll be rewarded with a terrific, if not sometimes a tad absurd, mystery. Totally great summer reading. I hope the third book is as good.
- Started reading:
- 13th July 2010
- Finished reading:
- 25th July 2010
- Type
Audiobook