Book Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson is the second in a trilogy that was written and then picked up for publishing before the author died at the age of forty-seven. There are some in Sweden where the story takes place and where Larsson lived and worked that believe he was murdered due to his work on and for a number of anti-establishment newspapers and magazines. Others believe he died as he lived hard drinking and killing himself with cigarettes. Whatever the cause his loss to the literary world just as he was getting started is heartbreaking and incalculable. It also reminds the reader to savor every word written because they are wonderful and finite.

The Girl who Played with Fire takes place sometime after the events depicted in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. While Dragon Tattoo focused on Blomkvist this book spends more time with Lisbeth a brilliant but troubled young woman with a past that is slowly unfurled that helps to explain her reasoning and actions. The premise of the book is that a young couple who were working on exposing corruption within the government are suddenly killed with all the evidence pointing at Lisbeth. One of the few who believe her innocent is Blomkvist and the way she contacts him and goes about clearing her name deserves to not be told in a review and it makes for very good reading.

In this book you are also introduced to Lisbeth's lovers. It will be apparent to most Americans who read this book that in many ways Sweden is much more permissive of sexual relations and liaisons then what we see in America and yet some of the underlying premises including discrimination against homosexuals is prevalent everywhere. Throughout the book you will learn where the author stands on many of the issues facing the world today so that while he is gone his thoughts and opinions stay with us and are heard.

The story in the book takes place over a period of time and you get to travel from the Cities of Sweden to it's countrysides and all places in between. Even the characters with the smallest plots are fully developed. Larsson had the ability to give a fully informed back story in five or six sentences setting the reader up to know enough to make assumptions but not always enough to draw accurate conclusions. While this book can stand alone is it my recommendation that you read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before reading this book. It will help to put relationships into perspective and it is also an amazing read and a book you will want to keep in your permanent library.