I'm a big fan of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series - I've read all of the books and I saw the original movies in Swedish. I haven't actually seen the English version of the movies. I read The Girl in the Spider's Web in September 2017 and really liked it.
I started this one on/around January 1st and finished it on January 13th. While I generally liked this book, it, to me, seemed a bit too formulaic. It picks up where the Spider's Web leaves off, and Lisbeth is in jail serving time for her part in the craziness from the prior book.
Of course, Mikael, Holger, and several other regular characters, make their appearance, and of course we meet some new players.
Like with the other novels, Lisbeth takes an active role in righting a wrong. In this one, there are a few wrongs that get righted all at the hands of Lisbeth and Mikael (as per usual). They've really turned into quite the crime-fighting duo. Like Scooby and Shaggy, Batman and Robin, Crocket and Tubbs, Cagney & Lacey. Lisbeth does the sketchy behind-the-scenes stuff, and Mikael puts it all together and publishes an article to bring it all to light. This version is very entertaining, and we find out a lot more about Lisbeth's tragic childhood and the source of inspiration for her dragon tattoo.
Even in jail, Lisbeth gets access to a computer and does some work with lists of people. She clues Mikael into something but doesn't give him too much so as not to bias him. It's slow going for Mikael at first since he really doesn't know what's going on. But then... he figures it out. There were some twists and turns with twins, and a bad people, revelations, violence, and revenge.
Bottom line - this book was entertaining and went to some unexpected places. I don't think you need to have read all of the prior books to be able to enjoy this one, but I think it certainly helps to have some background into the characters and relationships they all have. Lisbeth is a bad-ass and I like her.
I'd give this a medium thumbs-up probably because I wish it had a little more originality and wasn't so formulaic. But I guess that's sort of what you get when you are reading a book in a series.
On a random Sunday when the Husband and I were on our regular weekly pilgrimage to Costco, we did our usual swing by the book section to see if anything caught our eye. We often look at what's out to make our library book list then request them of our local library (best thing ever!). This book caught my eye. The Husband asked if I had read the other books in this series, indeed I have, and I watched the original movies in Swedish with English subtitles - streamed from Netflix on my computer. I don't remember if I saw the English-language movies. I normally don't like to read my movies - I opt for films in English. But since the English-language movies hadn't been made yet, and I was so eager to see them, I watched/read the movies. They were fantastic.
When we saw this book at Costco, I was intrigued and wanted to know if this was the "next" one in the series. Indeed, it is. Except it isn't by the original author, Stieg Larsson, but rather by David Lagercrantz. I like continuity in series books, but I'm not one to not read a book in the series if it is by a different author, especially if the original author has passed.
So, the Husband requested this for me from our local library, and I started it on September 5th and finished it on September 30th.
I hadn't read the synopsis or any reviews, I just dug right in. It started a little slow, but once it picked up, it was like a kick in the head from Lisbeth Salander herself. The action was awesome, I was invested in the characters, and in the last 100 pages or so, I couldn't put it down. The day I finished it was a Saturday. I usually get up around 8am, have a quick breakfast and watch a show on the DVR, then rush off to work out with my trainer for an hour. On September 30th, I got up at my normal time, read during breakfast, and when I got home, continued reading until I finished the book. Lisbeth lent me some of her bad-assness during my training session. I was boxing that day, and channeled Lisbeth. It was fun!
Lagercrantz paints a good picture of life for Mikael. Millennium is a pickle and the press for some reason is on Mikael's ass, and in typical Nordic form, there is a storm raging outside. We come to learn more about Millennium's pickle and about a young autistic boy. Lisbeth is her usual brooding, loner-self who is on a hacking tirade. Somehow all of these things collide and in typical form, the shit hits the fan. There are guns, car chases, seductresses, hit-men, hackers, government employees, sexual encounters, artistic moments, mathematical equations, and more.
I loved it. There is another book out that follows this - the Husband already has us on the list for it from the library. Woo hoo!
The book starts slow, but ends with a thrill.
I'm a big fan of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series - I've read all of the books and I saw the original movies in Swedish. I haven't actually seen the English version of the movies. I read The Girl in the Spider's Web in September 2017 and really liked it.
