There is a stage, one-third of the way through The Girl Who Played with Fire, when a lot of people talk about Lisbeth Salander, or The Girl.

Atleast half a dozen people weigh in on her, discuss her past, list her traits, express their feelings for her and so on. It is at this point one truly realizes the brilliance of the character Stieg Larsson has created. I wouldn’t go so far as to call her “amazing”, but it’s a fact that Lisbeth Salander is one of the most eclectic, eccentric, downright bizarre and absolutely refreshing heroines to come along in a long, long time. And she is the biggest strength of this book.

The book itself is quite a good yarn. Sequel to the bestseller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the story opens with Millennium’s star journalist Mikael Blomkvist being approached by researcher Dag Svensson about an exposé of the multi-billion kronor sex trafficking industry. Blomkvist, interested by the material, agrees to publish Svensson’s book and starts working with him. On the other hand, Lisbeth Salander is on a globe-trotting spree and enjoying her new, wealthy lifestyle. When she returns to Sweden, things turn ugly. Dag and his girlfriend Mia are murdered, along with Nils Bjurman (Lisbeth’s guardian) and Lisbeth is the prime suspect in the three murders. As the case blows up and the country’s police start searching for her, she is forced to go into hiding. But Blomkvist isn’t convinced that Salander committed those murders and starts his own investigation to prove her innocence. Meanwhile, Dag’s research may also hold a clue or two to his fate and Lisbeth’s predicament.

Quercus' cover is boring. I wish I had this one.

The first thing to be noted about The Girl Who Played with Fire is that this time around, Lisbeth, and not Mikael, is the hero of the piece. And, in my opinion, this is a good change. Yes, it made sense to tell the story with Blomkvist as the protagonist last time around but in this part, Lisbeth is the main player and she is a far more interesting character to follow around than Blomkvist.

And now that we’re talking about following around, let me point out that this book contains the same flaws that plagued Part 1, namely, lumbering prose and lots of digressions. For example, a subplot involving Lisbeth’s vacation in the Caribbean Islands serves little purpose to the main plot and could have been easily chopped off. Also, get ready to read lots and lots of repetitive accounts of mundane activities. You’ll read what Lisbeth decided to wear, when she went out into the city, which places she visited and what items she brought from the departmental store far too many times, and it is bafflingly unneeded. In fact, the action only picks up some 200 pages into the book, after Dag and Mia are murdered. One can only imagine how much more taut, and as a result thrilling, this 649 page book would have been had it been some 500 or 550 pages in length.

Enough on the bad points, now onto the good things. First up, the main mystery of this book is much, much better than that of the last one. The crime is bigger, the scale of events larger, the threat more immediate and the proceedings more intense. In just about every way, the sequel pawns its predecessor.

Also, the protagonist’s arc is much more intriguing. Right from the start, the teasing about Lisbeth’s past and “All the Evil” perk up one’s interest. In particular, how and why Lisbeth distrusts all authority so much is revealed extremely well. Then, “Zala” and the exposé into the sex-trafficking industry and how all these events are connected to Lisbeth are also excellently essayed. The supporting characters are very colourful and engaging. Blomkvist, Berger, Bjurman, Bublanksi and the other police officers, Miriam Wu and even the villainous henchmen have good roles. There is much more action this time around and it is nicely staged. Larsson depicts chases, scuffles, boxing matches and infiltrations enthrallingly and this adds (much needed) flavour to the book’s narrative.

The Girl Who Played with Fire ends on a really nail-biting cliffhanger, which only serves to prove that this tale, and these characters, are part of a much larger universe, a universe that has been set up slowly but surely since Part 1. As a result of this, I cannot wait to pick up Part 3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

(3/4)

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Photo Credit: Vintage