The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
February 2012
Format: Paperback, 655 pages
First line: Dr. Jonasson was woken by a nurse five minutes before the helicopter was expected to land.
From the back cover: In the concluding volume
of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander lies in
critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head.
But
she’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she
recovers, she’ll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael
Blomkvist, she’ll need to identify those in authority who have allowed
the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her
own, she’ll seek revenge–against the man who tried to killer her and
against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her
life.
My thoughts: This is the final book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and I am totally bummed!!! It is really a shame that Larsson died before writing the ten books he had envisioned for this series.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest picks up almost immediately after the events of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and it’s hard to say too much more than that without spoiling what happens in that second book. I will say that the story follows the natural conclusion of the events in the first two
books as everything dovetails toward a “behind-closed-door” trial. The first part of this book takes
place in the hospital where Lisbeth is recovering and it was quite fascinating
reading things from her perspective, then switching to others
involved and seeing each of their limited pieces of the evolving puzzle.
As most of you know, I always tend to read series in order – in fact I’m quite anal about doing that – and in this case, I would say it’s almost a must. The characters are so complex and real that an understanding of their background is almost necessary to really get the complete picture and the only way to do that is to start with book 1.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, I am totally bummed that there will not be any more stories about Lisbeth Salander. She is quite a complex, interesting, and even amazing character. I can only hope that the other two books are made into movies here in the United States, with Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist and Rooney Mara playing Salander. I know I will certainly be keeping this series of books on my bookshelf to reread again in the future.
Have you read this series? What are your thoughts on only the first 3 books being written as opposed to Larsson’s original plan of 10?
(I purchased this book.)
Books in this series:
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
I loved this series as well and am just as sad that there will be no more books. I imagined future books would be about Lisbeth's family.