CheriePie's Books

In this second book of the Millennium series, after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Millennium magazine is getting ready to publish a very revealing exposé on the sex trade and trafficking in Sweden. But just as the article and book are preparing to come to press, Dag Svensson, author of the book and article and friend to Mikael Blomkvist, is murdered in his home along with his wife Mia. Mikael is fairly certain that the murders have something to do with the material in Dag's book, but due to an unusual set of circumstances, Lisbeth Salander is being sought in connection with the crime instead. But now Lisbeth has gone into hiding, and while Mikael desperately searches for pieces of a really bizarre puzzle in an to attempt to prove her innocence, some of what's uncovered reaches deep into the highest levels of international security. It seems someone will do whatever it takes to keep a secret!

When I finished this book my first thought was, "Whoa, what a ride!" I'm not sure why several people told me they couldn't get past the first few chapters. I agree that like the first book in the trilogy, things may have started off a little slow, but before I was even halfway through, I was having a hard time putting this one down. Though this book could actually stand alone, it certainly adds a lot to have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo first. For that reason, some initial character development and past story line summaries were scattered throughout the beginning of the book. Perhaps that turned some people off, I don't know.

One thing I have to mention again though, and I believe I said this in my review for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo too, I don't particularly care for the convention of calling characters by their last name. Especially with these non-American names which (to me) so many of them look or sound alike. What's nice about reading on the Kindle though is it makes it super easy to just highlight and search on the name to get a refresher, otherwise I'd probably find this a lot more burdensome than just a minor distraction. Overall, a great read and two thumbs up! I've already started on the final book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.