Book Summary and Reviews of The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Stieg Larsson

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Jul 2009, 512 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Powerful prose and intriguing lead characters will carry most readers along." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Impatient readers may chafe at [the] seemingly irrelevant prolog, but like the mathematical puzzles Salander enjoys solving, there is a logic to the clues that Larsson carefully drops - integral to understanding his protagonist as we gradually learn her back story." - Library Journal

"[W]hile endlessly complex, the plot has the requisite chases, cliffhangers and bloodshed.Not to mention Fermat's theorem. " - Kirkus Reviews

"Starred Review. A suspenseful, remarkably moving novel... One of the most compelling characters to strut the crime-fiction stage in years." - Booklist

"As good as crime writing gets ... Completely absorbing and engaging on both a narrative and a moral level . . . Lisbeth Salander [is] a remarkable heroine."” –The Times Literary Supplement

"The huge pleasure of these books is Salander, a fascinating creation with a complete and complex psychology ... Salander is recognisably a Lara Croft for grown-ups – a female Terminator." -The Guardian (UK)

"The Girl Who Played with Fire is that rare thing – a sequel that is even better than the book that went before ... A combination of urgent, multilayered thriller, traditional police procedural and articulate examination of the way a supposedly open-minded country like Sweden treats its vulnerable women and children." - The Observer (UK)

"With the spiky and sassy Salander, Larsson created the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years ... She seizes the book by the scruff of its neck and binds the reader in fetters of fascination." - The Independent (UK)

"This second novel is even more gripping and astonishing than the first. What makes it outstanding is the author's ability to handle dozens of characters and parallel narratives without losing tension. Larsson was a fantastic storyteller. This novel will leave readers on the edge of their seats." - The Sunday Times (UK)

This information about The Girl Who Played with Fire was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Lynn

Better than the first book in the series
I just love Lisbeth Salander! I am actually sad that there will only be 3 books with her as a character. This 2nd book of the series was non-stop action and suspense. I loved it as a follow-up to the excellent "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo". We got to spend more time with Lisbeth and her history on this one. Stieg Larrson has written a masterpiece. I can't wait for the next book.

PDXReader

Better than the first in the series
This, the second book in the series, is more engaging than the first, and fans of the series will definitely enjoy learning more about its protagonist, Lisbeth Sanders. Far more of the plot revolves around her than it did in the first book, and the story also moves along at a faster clip, with few slow spots (if any). I did think the plot was a bit silly at times – lots of coincidental meetings, people just happening to be in the right place at the right time, over-the-top violence, characters who are one-dimensional, etc. Normally I’d consider these fatal flaws in a novel, but in this one, it somehow seems to work. It requires considerable suspension of disbelief, but it’s a fun book – if you don’t look at it too closely.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Stieg Larsson Author Biography

Photo: Britt-Marie Trensmar

Swedish author Stieg Larsson's life is every bit as fascinating as that of any fictional character. Mikael Blomkvist, the protagonist of The Millenium Series, in fact bears many similarities to his creator.

Karl Stig-Erland Larsson was born on August 15, 1954 in Västerbotten, in northern Sweden. He was raised in the countryside by his grandparents until his grandfather's death in 1962 (despite considerable research, including questions to his publisher, that is all we have been able to glean of his childhood).

After performing his mandatory two-year military service, Larsson traveled widely in Africa, witnessing the civil war in Eritrea first-hand. On his return to Sweden in 1977, he worked for Tidningarnas Telegrambyra (TT), the largest Swedish news agency. ...

... Full Biography
Link to Stieg Larsson's Website

Name Pronunciation
Stieg Larsson: Steeg (rhymes with league) LARSson

Other books by Stieg Larsson at BookBrowse
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more thrillers...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...
  • Book Jacket
    A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens
    by Raul Palma
    Raul Palma's debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens introduces Hugo Contreras, who came to the ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

H I O the G

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.