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)

You won't want to put it down!!

This book, like the first one in the trilogy, is so good you won't want to put it down. I found myself carrying my Centro everywhere I went, stopping to sit and listen whenever I could. Lisabeth Salander is one of the most interesting literary characters I've ever read. Can't wait for book three!!

worth every penny

A very engaging book , I could not stop listening!

whidbeyguy

Interesting story, very good development of characters, story line had logic.

On Fire; Playing with Fire

I read the first book and stumbled over the Swedish names, not knowing how they would sound. Listening to the second book was great! These books are fantastic and I can't wait for the third (unfortunately final) due out in May 2010.

Can't wait for another sequel

don't read this before you read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Both are "can't turn off suspense" I look forward the the next Elizabeth Sallinger adventure.

Fantastic!

I thought this book was great! Even better than the first but I realize that in the first book we are "getting to know" the characters. I've already pre-ordered the last book in this series. Can't wait!

Captivating Characters

This author brings to life characters totally foreign to my experience; and yet it seems I now know them. I am captivated by his work and only hope he soon publishes another.

Law and Order, recommended

A good listen, quality audio and a solid narrator, recommended and worth a credit. I came to this book from the previous Dragon Tattoo book, which I read rather than listened to. I enjoyed the story, but was let down somewhat by the shift to an omnipotent Lisbeth Salander in the Fire novel rather than the more evenly balanced character studies in the Tattoo book between the cipher of Lisbeth Salander and Mikhail Blomkvist. Could be the Swedish names, but I was lost at times late in the book as multiple characters come and go. Major relationships and characters are introduced in the first third of the novel and just outright vanish, kind of odd. Overall the two novels remind me of the TV show Law and Order. Early on in the TV show simple and interesting plotlines abounded...guy kills his wife in a clever way, they catch him. Years later the TV show blew up into large complex social justice cases. Same thing with the two novels, 1st one is clean, focused and interesting; 2nd one is also good, but all of a sudden it expands nation-wide in conspiracy upon conspiracy. By the end I thought maybe they'd uncover the Kennedy assassination. I also find "filler material" more obvious in audio books than in written read books; and about 2 hours could have been trimmed here with no quality lost. Still, spend the credit.

Overall very enjoyable

I really like this book, and I like listening to the reader a great deal.
The only negative is that it was way too wordy at times.
Even with the wordiness, I still would recommend it. I really wish the author were still alive!

Loved it

I am not sure if I liked this more than the first but, as with the first, I have heard it several times.