Synopsis:

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.
(back cover) Goodreads

Review:

It had been a long time since the first time that I visited the world of Lisabeth Salander. Her world does not disappoint. I enjoyed the second installment of “the millennium” series. The book starts with a series of murders of which Lisabeth is being accused of. Our main character Mikael Blomkvist, is determined to prove Lisabeth’s innocence. 

This book gives a better glimpse into who Lisabeth is. Essentially, all of Sweden thinks she is guiltily but there is only one person who believes her innocence and is willing to go to hell and back to prove it.

It was interesting to see how even through the strained relationship that Blomkvist and Salander had throughout the book, he never stopped believing that she was innocent. He didn’t have much proof but, he knew her character. He had so much faith in her innocences that he stopped at nothing to prove it to be true. 

The story is connected with past events that begin to show why Lisabeth is the way she is. Everyone is portraying her as a nutcase but is she really or is someone trying to cover up their wrong doings? 

The second half of the book is extremely fast paced, as the mystery of the murders is being resolved. I personally loved Lisabeth’s character. I think that she is so strong, for how many events occurred to her that were not part of her doing . I also liked that her character was not seen to be painted in angelic form. She had a lot of flaws, but she never tried to pretend that she didn’t. 

This is a slow burn book- the events take time to occur and in the meantime the author gives little glimpse of our protagonist. There are a lot of side characters, who provide a lot background information to our main characters. At first I felt like there was way too much information about them but once you hit the resolution of the book it is so worth having all the side characters and story lines. Every single character in this book plays a role in making the story come together at the end. 

I love thriller novels, this one did not disappoint. The slow burn was very much worth it. The time that I spent reading this book, made me feel as if I was in Sweden. It was extremely nice to escape reality with this story, even though the content did have heavy based material such as rape, abuse, and prostitution. I thought it was written in a way that supported the novel and gave the reader a backstory to the events that occurred in the book. It was written in a very classy way. The ending was everything that I wanted and more. The book resolved so well. I can’t wait to read the next installment. 

Rest In Peace Mr. Larsson! ❤️