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The Girl Who Played With Fire – Steig Larsson

I recently wrote a review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and as brilliant as that book is, and as much as it can stand on its own as a story, it is ultimately a part of a broader trilogy. And that trilogy incorporates the intricacies of that first part, and adds yet further layers, and deeper complexities. The trilogy is, in a nutshell, an example of masterful storytelling.

The second in the series - The Girl Who Played With Fire - continues on from where part one ends, taking the now firmly established character of Lisbeth Salander and delving deeper in to the depths of her true nature and background. She has been written as a person of extreme mystery, someone who wears her suspicion of authority and other people's prying eyes as a badge of honour. She is paranoid, and clearly has reason to be so. And here we start to find out what those reasons are.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo brought Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander together, and painted a picture of a relationship both fragile and unexpected, and ultimately fraught with danger. Having cut contact with Mikael, events unfold that sees Lisbeth under suspicion for a series of murders. Circumstantial evidence leads police to point the finger at her, and everything about the case seems cut and dry. Until Mikael, knowing Lisbeth couldn't have committed these murders, starts to investigate the matter for himself.

Those murdered include a couple about to release a hard hitting investigation into underage prostitution, and many figures in authority are starting to feel the heat from it. But of interest to the report's author, and eventually to Mikael (who takes over completing the report after the author's murder) is one name on the list – someone by the name of Zala. Just who is he, and why do all the emerging facts lead to him? And more importantly what is his relationship to Lisbeth Salander?

The Girl Who Played With Fire sees Lisbeth, Mikael (and his Millenium magazine) as well as the police all embarking on their own searches to uncover truths, discover hidden secrets, and find the missing pieces of a mystery that defies explanation. A mystery that involves secrets dark enough to end lives, and possibly bring down the Government. A mystery that ultimately leads to a man named Zala.

Steig Larsson has written another spellbinding tale of intrigue and complex relationships. Slowly peeling back the layers to reveal a deeper and more mysterious story line, the reader is brought along on a well paced ride, and prevented from putting the book down and taking a break. It is too good for that. Just as in the first book, the characters are well developed, and relationships and connections revealed in ways that enhance and further the plot.

The ending will leave you satisfied, yet demand your attention move quickly to the concluding third instalment. As is the norm in second episodes of trilogies, the story is brought to a conclusion in its own rights, yet so much more is yet to be revealed. In that sense, to me, the second and third sections of the trilogy work best together, as opposed to the first, which does work work as a stand alone story.

This book is worth a read, but I ultimately recommend you read the complete Millennium trilogy and give the full story its opportunity to leave you spellbound.

This is post 30 in @dragosroua's January 30 day writing challenge.

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