The Girl Who Played With Fire

This book is the second one in the Trilogy from Stieg Larsson. Because I really lowed the first book, I was hoping that the second book would somehow be as good or better than the first. Also, I was looking forward to completing the book in record time. Usually, when the main character is a woman, most authors make her out either as an arrogant successful woman or someone downright dumb. It was such a relief that the main character was well-defined (though quite complicated), her quirks and eccentricities did not consist of shopping and gossip, and also that she is not quite the fantasy woman of most males.

This book gives us some insight into Lisbeth Salander's character and her past. At the end of the first book, Lisbeth is broken-hearted, angry, and bitter. This book takes off from there. Lisbeth cuts off all contact with Blomkvist and travels for a year before she returns to Stockholm. She has her share of adventures at various places ending the travel at Grenada with Mathilda - the hurricane. We are also given a peek into what happened so many years ago, how Lisbeth had thrown a molotov cocktail at her father and watched as he burned and as a result was institutionalized. Blomkvist, meanwhile recruits a new investigative journalist who is planning to write an expose` on human trafficing. And just when you are wondering Ok.. now what? The writer who free-lanced @ Millenium, and his partner are murdered. And everyone is looking at Lisbeth as the person who committed the crime(s). Soon, there is a nation-wide hunt for Lisbeth. Blomkvist trusts that Lisbeth is innocent and tries to re-establish contact after Lisbeth goes into hiding. The rest of the book is quite interesting and keeps you engrossed. Quite a few new characters are brought in who have interesting viewpoints on Lisbeth. The book ends wen Blomkvist catches up with Lisbeth as she cracks the case wide-open. I had somehow assumed that the phrase "All the Evil" was used to indicate sexual abuse at the hands of some1 very close, probably her father, but was very relieved that it was not so.