The Girl Who Played with Fire

Cover of The Girl Who Played with Fire

Stieg Larson wrote a trilogy beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  He wrote the 3 books at one time and died soon after he gave them to his publisher.  The first one came out last year, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  I love it.  Couldn't put it down.  So when the next book came out, The Girl Who Played with Fire, the book went to the top of the pile as my next read.

I have always been a reader and certainly my interests have changed over the years.  In HS and college, I loved murder mysteries, then they left my radar.  I remember when I first started working at Macy's and we were fed all the appropriate lore of the store in the training program.  Ed Finkelstein was the President at this point and the head of personnel told us that he read every book on the NY Times best seller list adding to what a wonderful man he was and we should all be aware of that.  I was so impressed with that as I was trying to figure out what kind of adult and working person I was going to be.  Looking back now, it makes me laugh, but for some reason the last couple days, this particular story keeps coming to mind. 

Anyway, as I said, my interests have changed to mostly new novelists and more of the latest and greatest.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was certainly the latest and greatest last year but it is a murder mystery set in Stockholm which is something I rarely read these days.  The difference, at least to me, is that the characters are so well developed that I can actually imagine each of them in my mind.  Even the descriptions of places although not wordy the words are written in a way that visions come to your mind of the room, the street, the outfit.  Also, the book is very much in the moment from the technology aspect and politics.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the same, I loved it.  A total page turner.  I highly recommend reading the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo first although not necessary because he writes about what is important to know from the last story in the second story enough that it isn't redundant if you have read the first and it is helpful if you haven't.  But, I'd read them both because they are both entertaining page turners and just a great read.

Honestly, I can hardly wait for the third book to come out and will be so sorry when it is over.  A wonderful writer who died at much too early of an age.