The Girl Who Played With Fire

I enjoyed this book very much. Once again, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Saul Reichlin. He does a brilliant job with the Swedish names and voices for characters. His high-pitched voice for the blond giant was great!

And so to the book. I don't know why I left a gap of years between the first and second books of the trilogy. But enough of the first tale was related to in the second that it wasn't long before I had the plot of the first back in my head again. I suppose that's a job that the author has to see for those such as I with poor memories. I don't intend to leave a gap between two and three though, mainly because two doesn't really end as such. It wraps up the whodunnit nicely but leaves it wide open for the third book. It reminded me of Empire Strikes Back, of which, incidentally, it also reminded fellow goodreader, Steve Betz!

The timeline and pace of the book are just right. We get Salander's visiting Svensson and Johannson's flat* and then she's not in the book for ages after that while the tale of her suspected guilt is built up. Brilliant!

It reads like a book written by a master of his craft. It reminded me a little of the early Jason Bourne books in the suspense and twists and turns. It made me want to walk the dogs more than usual and delete a few podcasts from my queue, so it certainly deserves four stars for that reason.

In terms of literary weight, I'd mark it down to three, so I guess overall it should get 7/10. Four seems a little too high and three a little too low.

*Forgive my spelling if it's not quite right; I had the audiobook!