I'm getting more into The Girl Who Played with Fire, but I've still been reading it at an uncharacteristically slow pace. I think I preferred the first book's mystery-from-the-past plot; it had more weight and lent some gravitas to the book. But hey, Fire is still pretty cool so far.
Lisbeth has now been framed for three murders: those two new nice young reporters who we didn't really get to know, and Bjurman, of all people. Ding-dong, the psycho's dead, which makes happy, and it's also a pretty interesting plot twist. I'm assuming that the crazy giant killed him to frame Lisbeth for the assassinations of Dag and Mia. Crazy Blonde Giant is probably the true identity of Zala, who is perhaps the evil guy who showed up in the confusing opening flashback/prologue? Hmmm. Then again, maybe Lisbeth actually did kill Bjurman, since we haven't seen her since the murders actually occured. It's an interesting and effective device to spend the first part of the book focused like a laser on Lisbeth, and then switch perspectives once th plot heats up. I would like to know what she's up to, though. Hiding out with Plague, the creepy hacker guy, would be my guess. Or maybe she's just holed up in her Awesome New Bachelorette Pad, which the feds don't know about. I have to admit I thought she was being mighty paranoid about keeping the location a secret, but it turns out that she was being mighty intelligent and insightful.
I'm not particularly excited about the humungous cadre of detectives that have been introduced, though. Seriously, I'm glad that the series finally has a police presence of some kind, but couldn't Larsson have made the cops more interesting? Bublanski, the head of the investigative team, has no signifying features except an irritating and difficult-to-pronounce name. As for the rest, it's pretty much name soup. I think one of them is supposed to be a jerk, and one of them is really smart, and one of them has a reputation for being a loose cannon, but when they talk they all say basically the same stuff. I bet that at least one of them is a villain. Maybe Andersson? I'm looking forward to more development on the detective front, although I'm amused by how much at home they make themselves at crime scenes. Is that a thing in Sweden? Do cops just hang around at the houses of murder victims, making themselves comfortable and eating cinnamon rolls? Interesting.
In any case, it's a good read, and I'm looking forward to how it all ends up (and I hope that Blomkvist and Salander will actually have a scene together at some point). In other news, I just hit a flea market and bought forty-some new books to add to my library. I honestly go a little crazy when I find a bookstore with really good deals, and this particular stall was an excellent one. A dollar for paperbacks, and two for hardcover? Can't beat that.
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