The Girl Who Played with Fire

A Lisbeth Salander Novel

By: Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland - translator

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The electrifying follow-up to the phenomenal best seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ("An intelligent, ingeniously plotted, utterly engrossing thriller" The Washington Post), and this time it is Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker, who is the focus and fierce heart of the story.

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to publish a story exposing an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

On the eve of publication, the two reporters responsible for the story are brutally murdered. But perhaps more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander.

Now, as Blomkvist, alone in his belief in her innocence, plunges into his own investigation of the slayings, Salander is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

Listen to the rest of The Millennium Trilogy.

©2009 Stieg Larsson (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Boasts an intricate, puzzle-like story line . . . even as it accelerates toward its startling and violent conclusion.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

“[A] gripping, stay-up-all-night read.” ( Entertainment Weekly)

“Gripping stuff. . . . A nail-biting tale of murder and cover-ups.” ( People)

Interesting

Really enjoy reading about Lisbeth. Great Character. A little short on Bloomfeld. Can't wait to start the 3rd

Great Characters - Riveting Story

Although some reviewers found the first 6 hours to be slow, I enjoyed this portion as I was totally enamored with the main characters after having read "Girl with the Dragon tattoo". This story is absolutely riveting. I am totally into the heroine and could easily picture her in a movie for any of the books in this series.

Simon Vance is a great reader

Where does The Girl Who Played with Fire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, this audiobook is an 8. I've listen to this book twice.

What did you like best about this story?

The Girl.......

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, this is the first time I've listened to Simon Vance.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Unsure

Any additional comments?

Audio books and books are always better than a film of the same.

Excellent

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The book and the narrator were excellent. Would definitely recommend it. Can't wait to read the the next one.

Another great Larsson book

Read them in order to realize the fullest character development. Very well done. Kept me intrigued the whole way through. English translation works 99% of the time. 7 kroner = 1 dollar.

Salendar continues to kick butt....

What a loss with Steig Larssen's death. A great, fast read starring the same duo that filled Larsson's first book, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Bloomkvist and Salender are not teamed up physically, but both are searching for the reasons, and perpetrators, for 3 murders. With summer fast approaching, I'd recommend this book highly for a beach read. Nothing too deep or fancy, but a page turner, nonetheless.

Wow. Just wow.

What a book, what a character in Lisbeth! If you like the kind of book where you can cheer out loud...

This is it.

Excellent book.

Book 2 as good as the firsr!!!

Steig Larsson is a genius, it's a shame he didn't live long enough to see the success of his books. Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past. This time, Lisbeth must return to the darkness of her own past (more specifically, an event coldly known as "All the Evil") if she is to stay one step ahead--and alive. This series is tremendous, a real edge of the seat thriller.

Gloriously unapologetic and stylishly written

This has a slightly different feel from the first book, but it's still completely Stieg.

Vengeance and Rehabilitation...sweet!

In this book two of three books, our protagonist changes from victim to Avenger. I loved it. This was my second reading of all three books. It was worthwhile to read it twice because there are so many juicy details that can be missed in only one reading. Yes, there are a lot of characters and they have unfamiliar Swedish or Norwegian names but surprisingly I was able to enjoy the excellent plot in spite of the character richness. Our heroine gave me pleasure. She was able to satisfy three of the five human needs in book two. She had abundantly mastered the need for 1.basic survival needs of food, drink and the safety of shelter; 2. need for sexual gratification on her own terms; 3 self-esteem(bigger better material things for which humans strive). But she misses out on a sense of belonging(love) and self-actualization("What's it all about, Alfie"). But hey, this book was fun. In book one, she struggled for all five human needs....everything except sex. My normal venue for audio book listening is counter-terrorism, but the hero, or our country, is in a state of threat until the final 30-60 minutes. You can't relax for one minute. There is not enough time to enjoy more of the hero getting satisfaction along the way. Not so with " The Girl Who Played With Fire". The author rewards us with vengeance against our heroine's persecutors from Book 1 of this 3 part series. Yeah!!!!! The author lets our heroine heal and seek rehabilitation financially, physically, mentally, and slowly psychologically in tiny baby steps. The ending is amazing and shocking which propels you to the final book 3. I loved this trilogy and recommend highly. I saw "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" on cable last month with a 4 star rating so I decided to watch it, even though the movie write up did not intrigue me. But I said, if it got 4 stars it must be good. It was great after a 40 minute slow start of character development. Then the thrill ride was non stop. I've since ordered all 3 movies which originated in Sweden with American sub-titles. Expect to begin enjoying when they arrive later this week. Enjoy all three audio books in this series! I bet you love them!