Review: The Millennium Series, by Stieg Larsson

I already reviewed the first book in this series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but it took a while to get around to the other two books in the trillogy. I really enjoyed the first book, which was a stand-alone, but the second two fell a bit short of the mark for me. The Girl Who played With Fire picked up where Tattoo left off, then immediately started to delve into the past of the most intriguing character. The mystery that follows through both remaining books touches on the issue civil rights as they stand in the shadow of government power. As with his first book, Larsson approached the mystery from multiple angles so the point of view changes from time to time, setting the stage for plenty of dramatic irony. My complaint about these second two books is that they seem to spend an unfortunate amount of time going nowhere or reiterating information from too many directions. Still, the characters are true and enjoyable and the end delivers enough of a payoff to make the reading worth while.

Books 39 and 40 on my way to 52

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

An honest journalist is under fire for libel and must leave his post as editor of the magazine he founded. In the aftermath he is hired by a Swedish business magnate to ghost write his autobiography and to research the thirty-plus year old murder of his grand-niece. He is helped along the way by the hero and title-character.

The good mystery and a healthy dose of suspense kept me riveted, but the book's greatest strength is in its characters. I love an author who can draw characters without breaking out of the story and Larsson does this well. Even better the personas are believable and their decisions form fitting even while they stretch the definitions of morality, responsibility, and consequence. This is what I would call an enjoyable light read, but Larsson demands a little more of the reader as he lightly takes on corporate corruption, and more heavily tackles violence and abuse. What makes us who we are, and what responsibilities do we have are some of the questions we are left with in the end.

That, and a light romantic cliff hanger, will drag some of the curious, and the hooked, right into his next book.

Book 31 on my way to 52 in 2011