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)

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.

Lisbeth Salander is . . .

. . . my new favorite literary heroine. Love this girl -- she is nobody's victim. Can't wait till the third book . . .

Just love it!!!

Just love it!!!. Even better than the first one!!!

Something Stinks in Stockholm

The trilogy is unusual in that each book truly gets better.
A wonderful mystery, exciting adventure, and penetrating look at Scandinavian attitudes toward life.
A really great read. Don't miss it.

Wow!!!

I waited for this book thinking that it would be hard to live up to the first in the series. It is another ..... I guess, it is another mystery, but certainly there is no formula or anything predictable in the least here. It took everything further out there into Steig's world, but somehow he completely pulled me in again. It was even stranger and more fantastic. I should have found it to be less believable, but I bought in to it completely.... again It is like he creates a world and his characters live and breathe in it. Everything that happens engaged me. It surprised me, but felt real. I loved it .... maybe even more than the first. He is hands down my favorite writer because he convinces me so completely. I can't believe that his untimely death will leave us with only 3 books.

high energy big bang of a novel

Wonderful read. This book is not boring. You can't help but be sucked into the characters, especially the girl. Never a dull moment. Highly recommended.

Go Lisbeth!

Great listen. The narrator does a great job with the voices. The story is longer than it needs to be but intriguing. The names are a bit hard like I got Hekstrom and Egstrom confused a couple of times but not too bad. I recommend listening to Dragon Tattoo and this one back to back. I'm looking forward to the Girl Who Kicked a Hornets Nest. I hope the same narrator does that one. Sad that the author died young.