I don't even know where to begin. I so loved "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" that I couldn't wait for the second installment to be published in the US. I ordered a copy from Amazon UK and cracked it open the night that it arrived in the mail. This one definitely moved at a faster pace than the first book and is even better. Here we get the back story of Lisbeth Salander - who she really is and why she behaves as she does. The story is an exciting rollercoaster ride with so many twists and turns. I couldn't tear myself away from the book and finished it in three nights. It's a hefty book, 550 pages plus, but I would happily have read another 500. The final installment can't be published soon enough for me. Very, very highly recommend!

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If you don't want to stay up waaaaay past bedtime, then don't pick up this book. I read this one first, bought it at the airport in Seattle, and was entranced the entire plane ride across the country. Stieg Larsson created a character that was original and captivating in Lisbeth. The storyline had many twists and turns, but not too many to make you give up. My only issue, being American, was all the Swedish namea. I had to go back and do some rereading to keep them all straight. It is well worth it though.

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Steig Larsson does not disappoint with the second in the series about Lisbeth Salander. The saga that began in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo continues in this book. Much is revealed about Lisbeth's past and her character. Blomkvist is also a major presence in this book. This is another "can't put it down" cliff hanger of a book.

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Stieg Larsson's second installment of the Millennium series, The Girl who Played with Fire, serves up more good Swedish thriller but in distinctly different vein. Whereas The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is set up with a very tangible mystery to tackle--what happened to Harriet Vanger?--Fire's structure leads you through Stockholm more unpredictably. While Tattoo isn't strictly necessary prior reading, it allows you to fully appreciate the title character Lisbeth Salander who more centrally drives this novel. It's a year or so after Tattoo, with Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander's lives moving on. Separately.

Just when you think nothing is happening -- why has Larsson resorted to listing IKEA furniture names like NYC craigslisters?! -- you realize that detailing Salander's current life was the slow drawing of a quiverful of action arrows which rain down at an impressive pace. What's mentioned in the blurb really starts about a third of the way in, but if you've grown to love the eccentric brilliant loner Salander, you would enjoy seeing her emerge out of Larsson's focus on the part-detached Casanova, part-relentless investigator Blomkvist. Lisbeth Salander's past is the missing link between the murders of Blomkvist's new friends working on a sex-trafficking-expose for Millennium, the murder of an attorney, and the manhunt for our anti-heroine. There are new characters, new intriguing side plots featuring lesbian Satanic gangsters, and a most dramatic ending that has me repeating more strenuously my earlier advice: Don't start the series until you get your hands on all three parts!

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First Line: Lisbeth Salander pulled her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose and squinted from beneath the brim of her sun hat.

A year has passed, and the Wennerstrom affair has finally calmed down. Mikael Blomkvist is no longer being hounded by the media, but he can't forget the young woman who saved his life: Lisbeth Salander. But Salander has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, ignoring each and every attempt Blomkvist has made to contact her.

Things haven't remained quiet at Millennium magazine however. Journalist Dag Svensson and his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, have been researching the multi-billion kronor sex-trafficking industry in Sweden, and Millennium is going to run the expose and publish Svensson's book. Before all the facts have been double-checked, Svensson and Johansson are found brutally murdered in their apartment. The prime suspect? Lisbeth Salander. It's up to Blomkvist and the handful of other people who believe in this strange young woman to prove her innocence. As far as Salander is concerned, there's only one person she can rely on to do this: herself.

The first book in this series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was one of my Top Ten books last year. I had high hopes for this second book, and I wasn't disappointed. The police investigation into the double murder was stymied at every turn. The "expert witnesses" whose opinions are to be trusted, told the investigators what a menace to society Salander was. However, when they asked the same questions of the people who knew and worked with her, they got an entirely different picture of the woman. It took them valuable time to decide which people they should trust.

Once again, the person at the center of it all-- Lisbeth Salander-- is the most fascinating. As a young girl locked away in a psychiatric hospital, she was asked "Why won't you talk to the doctors?" To which Salander replied "Because they don't listen to what I say." If you don't listen to what this young woman says, she's not going to bother with you. At all. You won't even be a blip on her radar. When I turned the page to see "Part IV: Terminator Mode", I didn't bother to hide my grin. This could only mean that Salander was kicking into high gear. I loved seeing how Larsson tied the expose of the sex-trafficking industry and the double murder into Salander's own background, for this book does give insight into what makes Salander tick.

If you want to get to know one of the most fascinating characters in modern fiction, read Larsson's books. Lisbeth Salander will enter your bloodstream like the strongest of narcotics.

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Love this book. Can't wait to read the next one.

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In THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the second volume in the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, publisher Mikael Blomkvist and the police are conducting parallel investigations into three horrifying murders -- and their initial evidence points straight at young computer genius and social misfit Lisbeth Salander. Kalle Bastard Blomkvist (as Salander has begun referring to him) hasn't seen Salander in nearly two years, except for one night when he happened to witness a huge man attempting to kidnap her and both she and the attacker eluded him. He's bewildered about why she cut him off cold, but had accepted her decision -- until now. He doesn't believe Salander killed these victims. Well, at least not two of them. He has to contact her, find out how she's become embroiled in this, and help her. Salander, as usual, has her own ideas about who she'll see and when....

In THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Larsson partnered Blomkvist and Salander as they unraveled a twisted tale of corporate greed, Fascist connections, and perverse sex and violence. FIRE highlights another subject on which Larsson wanted to shine light, namely the underbelly of the sex trade, a swill of human misery being forcibly imposed for money and simple loathing of women. Blomkvist's magazine, Millennium, plans an issue devoted to the subject based on the interviews and reporting of a criminologist and a journalist, and there follows much in-house discussion of the lurid material and how it should be presented to the public. But the three murders turn the magazine and its people on their heads.

Meanwhile, Salander travels, changes her appearance, and matures in the early chapters of the 569-page book that covers four months in total and is told in four parts. Among her pursuits: attempting to proof Fermat's Last Theorem in a way Fermat himself might have done, furnishing her new abode, and keeping tabs on Bjurman (whom, recall, she memorably tattooed in DRAGON). Then, she disappears for quite a spell as the murder investigation gets cranking, and finally, she regains the spotlight as the book rushes headlong into a heart-stopping denouement.

The last book in this series is called THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST in its English translation. The entire trilogy has already been published in Swedish (naturally), French, and German. Larsson reportedly had planned a ten-volume series. He had written part of the fourth book and had outlined volumes five, six, and seven. Sadly, due to his early death, only the trilogy is complete and will, according to his father, be published. After reading FIRE, the thought creeps in that perhaps the trilogy will not provide closure, and that the reader could be left dangling, unsatisfied. That would be a crying shame because Salander and Blomkvist -- along with other continuing characters -- do burrow themselves deeply into the reader's (at least this reader's) affections. Fortunately, reviewers who have read, in the other aforementioned languages, the entire story arc, including the final novel, seem generally very satisfied. Some claim that the last book, also the longest, is a grand finale that answers all outstanding questions. A few are less effusive, stating that the last book can't meet the anticipatory heights set by the stunning, unusual first one.

This last criticism can be applied to the second book as well. FIRE does not pack quite the punch of uniqueness that DRAGON did. One can perhaps think of the movie trilogy THE MATRIX, MATRIX RELOADED, and THE MATRIX REVOLUTION as an analogy. The smash introductory film awed with its mind-bending perspective. The second and third passes were very solid, even amazing, partners, but they only reiterated the cutting-edge magic so novel in The MATRIX, building on it, not inventing something mind-blowingly fresh. Familiarity takes a bit of the bloom off the rose, but it certainly doesn't breed contempt in these instances. Larsson's FIRE lags a little during the mid-section in which criminal investigation procedure grinds along and the author belabors certain points, seeming to believe his readers novices at crime mysteries. But overall, FIRE accelerates the enthralling story of Lisbeth and Mikael with panache. One can't help thinking the world they inhabit is too slimy, too vicious, but Larsson was a man with many crusades and causes, and his trilogy vividly paints the harsh pictures of society that he hoped to reform. The Millennium Trilogy encompasses uncompromising social critique; prickling thrills; and curious, bittersweet romance. FIRE drew me like a moth, and I can't wait to get my hands on HORNET. 4.4 stars.

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After really enjoying the first book, I just sailed through this one with my nose in the book every free moment I had. I have never read a series in sequence, I always needed a bit of a break, but THIS series had you on the edge of your seat wondering what could possibly happen next! The plot twists, and impossible situations were riveting. I'm obviously going right into book 3. If you like adventure, and a strong female lead with lots of enigma, this is for you!

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Excellent book. Great follow up to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo".

Contains violence, language and adult concepts.

A thriller I could not put down.

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Wow to say this is an amazing book is an understatement.
The author never fails, we pick up where the dragon tattoo book ended and off we go on this wild ride again!!
I loved it and so will you.

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This book picks up where The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ends. We discover who is Lisabeth's father and find that she is suspected of three murders. As a result much of her abnormal childhood and youth is exposed to the national press and she is the object of a nationwide manhunt. Even some of those she deems as friends become convinced that she is this cold-blooded killer. Mikael believes, however, that she is innocent and works to discover who is the real killer. Fortunately, Lisabeth's pension for privacy keeps her safe until she encounters her father and the actual killer. I truly enjoyed the read and was so glad that she survived to be featured in another novel.

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Very enjoyable. Keeps you guessing, but it really leaves you hanging at the end.

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Wonderful book. The characters take on aa life of their own. Great characterization . The action keeps you turning the pages until early the next morning. Nothing like any other book I have ever read. My only regret is that the author has died so there will be no other books.

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I can see why this series made such a splash with the public. The second in the series was again a great read. It seemed a little boring for the middle third, probably because I was familiar with the characters. However the storyline and action are well written that it is easy to overlook the improbable coincidences throughout the book. Except for the fact that most of the characters are the same this is just as much fun to read as the first book in the series.

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I read the first book in this series and could not get into it. I did finish it though. I started this one and could not get into it after a few pages and decided it wasn't worth forcing myself to finish it.

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A wonderful wrap-up in the Lisbeth Salander Trilogy. Each page of the book moves you through a web of intense drama and keeps you glued to the story. Fans of Stieg Larsson will not be disappointed as many questions that were sparked by the first two books are finally answered.

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Again, can't say enough about how absorbing I found these 3 books in the trilogy. Wish there were more. You will love Lisbeth Salander, a remarkable female character, totally independent, not trusting anyone, quirky, not the most friendly but talk about a survivor, wow. Having lived thru the most horrible adolescence, this little slip of a girl shows how strong a woman can be. I am listing all 3 in the trilogy this week. You won't be sorry unless you are looking for a short, predictable fast read.

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