THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE

TITLE: THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
AUTHOR: STIEG LARSSON
Pages: 569
Date: 13/04/2009
Grade: 5
Details: no. 2 The Millennium Trilogy
Library

Boy, does Larsson know how to write intricate thrillers. In this, the second installment of the Millennium Trilogy there is lots going on and there's a variety of players, much like was the case in part one.
One word of warning though; I wouldn't advice anyone to read this book without having read "THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO" first. Not only does this book continue the stories of the characters that were introduced in the first book, it also gives away most, if not all, the answers to the mysteries in that story.
The main characters in this book are once again Mikael Blomkvist, investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium Magazine and Lisbeth Salander, researcher extra-ordinaire, but also a young woman with many issues.
In this book her issues and her past catch up with Lisbeth and she finds herself accused of a triple homicide. While the police launch a nationwide hunt for what they consider a deranged killer, Blomkvist is convinced that Lisbeth can't be guilty and sets out to prove as much.
There is a lot more going on in this book, and as usual it involves social issues, but since I don't want to give away any part of the solution, I won't go into any of that.
What really impressed me about this book is that at no time was there the often seen black versus white divide. It wasn't a case of the sole investigator up against a police force refusing to look beyond the obvious. Yes, there are some out and out villains, but apart from those, all the characters are multi-layered, like real humans.
The run up to the story proper is long, and while I was reading that part of the book I thought maybe too long. Having read the whole book though, I realize that it was necessary in order to establish the characters so that the rest of the story made sense.
I'm both looking forward to and dreading reading the third and final Millennium thriller.
Looking forward to it because it's bound to be another intricate and fascinating book. I'm dreading it as well though because once I've read that book there won't ever be another book by Larsson because he died so tragically prematurely.