The Girl Who Played with Fire

If you're anything like me, you needed to be forced into reading the book following The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I told a friend of mine how that book put me on antidepressants, but she was adamant that I at least read what happens next to our near friend, Lisbeth Salander. In exchange, she read Marley and Me, a book that could have very well put her on antidepressants. As you would imagine, we both loved our respective reads, but for very different reasons (one of them being that her story stared a cute, lovable, cuddly pooch).

When I finished the introductory book, I mistakenly read the book-number-two special insert located in the back, the 2-3 pages that is supposed to entice you to buy the next book, then ultimately contribute to the franchise with books, movies, posters, CD's, clothing, etc. But, for me, reading about Lisbeth being strapped to her bed while a creepy doctor enters her padded cell and talks to her like their situations should be reversed had the complete opposite effect on me. So I stocked up on pills, made a deal with my friend, and off I went.

I came to find out that particular scene took place when she was 12-13 years old, which only makes it that much more uncomfortable and sleazy. This was just after "All the Evil" that we learned about in the first book but would now come to know, despite every effort. Surprisingly, however, it is Lisbeth that is the one interested in revealing the truth.

Once again, we join up with out friend, Mikael Blomkvist, resident hero of a self-described non-influential monthly financial magazine, who has become somewhat of a celebrity in the publishing and financial world, ultimately taking down the man who had him convicted of libel. Now, he is presented with a story exposing the world of sex trafficking that is lead by some of Sweden's most influential politicians, lawyers, policemen, and various other would-be stand-up citizens. But just as the story is about to g viral, the author and his partner are murdered, and it's none other than our heroin, Lisbeth, that is the prime suspect. While only us readers know what her motive would have been, her fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, which was also used to murder her guardian on the same night.

As you read, it becomes more and more difficult to believe Salandar isn't guilty, but you're at least empathetic and simply want to learn why she did it; she doesn't usually take a shit without having a really good reason, and donning her Irene Nesner wig. Although Blomkvist heads up the morality police, he stands by Salandar and is convinced of her innocence, launching his own private investigation in to what happened and, more importantly, why. Since he has more insider information than the police, he's able to privately interact with fugitive Salandar, and learn that the police are hindering the very investigation they head, and that the story delves much deeper than the imminent exposure of the sex trade. In fact, it started just before Salandar turned 13 years old.

We know Salandar didn't have the greatest of childhoods, floating from foster family to foster family, in and out of psych wards, abused, neglected, passed around, then spit out by the justice system. As Blomkvist uncovers secret after secret, he plunges deeper into Salandar's life than he had intended, learning the very mobster they're looking for is someone very close to Lisbeth. And, finally, he delivers to us "All the Evil."

I made a deal with myself not to read this book as it approached bed time, but then I found I couldn't put it down. I even admitted to my friend that I really found it interesting (she, in turn, admitted she did love Marley and Me even though she was in hysterics by the end) and that I wouldn't need to be literary blackmailed into reading the third installment. Coincidentally, she said it was her favorite and is interested to know my thoughts.

Although we know Lisbeth Salandar did not murder her guardian or the journalists, she is now subjected to revealing her role in the triple murders, which will ultimately tell her story from the beginning, and wrap up the three-book series quite nicely. The Girl Who Played with Fire left us desperately wanting more, Salandar barely clinging on to life.....