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)

excellent thriller

I am rather new in this genre, but I find that Larsson is a master storyteller. Indeed, the story starts a bit slow, with background info and descriptions of the people involved without nothing really striking happening, but this works well to build the scaffold of the story, and once this is ready it shoots out like a rocket. I could not stop listening to the third part and heard it in one single sit (into an untimely hour). Kudos for Larsson.
Simon Vance delivers a decent job, he is not my favourite reader, but he never bothered me or distracted my attention from the story, so I take him as successful.
The very end of the book is one of the best closures I have read.
All in all, full marks for this audiobook.

For my followers

Over ten thousand people gave this five stars and another 3700 gave it four stars and it has been reviewed bunches. So only my followers will read this.

This being book two, it is almost as good as book one. Book One was a tiny bit better. If you have not read book one and this is on sale go ahead and get it. This is pretty much a stand alone novel, even though they refer to book one events, it is not necessary to the story.

Book one had lots on Swedish economy which this one does not have and that is good. In book one I wished for more on Salander and in book two I got more of Salander then I really wanted. Novel characters have a tendency to lose there novelty when you spend a lot of time with them as you do in this novel.

Toward the end of this almost 19 hour book I was ready for the ending. I felt the book went on way too long. Most of the reason it was so long is the details we don't really want. Most mornings you get to hear actually what the characters have for breakfast. When a character gets dressed we hear actually what he/she is wearing, color, type of shirt, coat, etc.

Did you know that mace is illegal in Sweden? I got a little tired about references too bad American Movies. If you don't like American Movies, don't pay to watch them.

The narrator was good, even though one character sounds exactly like Count Dracula, which made him hard to take seriously.

A Great Book!

This is completely worth the download. I would recommend the first book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so that when you download this book you will understand some of the background. If you don't you still will find this a great book!

Credit or purchase worthy!

I was skeptical about even starting this series. I read some of the reviews on this particular book and saw that someone had posted a review saying that this book was Erotica. I have no idea what book they read but there was no "erotica" feel for me. It has a sex trafficing scenario so what else would you expect?. Looking forward to listening to the final book with a heavy heart.

As good as the original

This sequel to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" does not disappoint. I really enjoyed the first novel and was looking forward to this installment. I enjoy the narrator's presentation and the fact that the book is based in another country does not detract from the story at all. Get both books and do yourself a favor. These 2 books are the only books that I am listening too again

Love the hype over this trilogy

love the stories just as much! Couldn't stop listening - read all the blogs in English, such a globally popular trilogy - such a love fest. Lisbeth Salander is quite the character - Simon Vance a terrific narrator! Can't wait to see the movie versions. The bloggers love the movies as much as the books! There's a real surprise for you. Check out http://www.sallysfriends.net/

great read

This books has its slow points, but doesn't disappoint in the end. I went from being angry to shocked in a matter of minutes. Great read.

Loved it

Loved the reading. I really like the quality of the reads voice and I loved the book. Really looking forward to the next one!

Great but....

I loved the story, with one exception. Larsson frequently jumps around telling the story from a number of character's point of view. I have no problem with this. However after the first sentence in which says the name of the person we are now following, he resorts to "he" or "she" rather than the name. And there are an extensive number of characters. I frequently found myself confused at who's story we were reading now. It is irritating to have to rewind and find that one second where the name was mentioned. Granted, this was meant to be read, rather than listened to, but it is not very good writing technique. I got the impression that Larsson was so deeply engrossed in his own story that he wrote he or she to save time, intending to go back and replace them with names but never did.

Otherwise the story was great, a little slow at the beginning but still engrossing to the point I did not want to stop listening.

a must read!

I liked the book and the character Lizbeth Sallander. I enjoyed the careful and clever ways she protected herself. I recommend The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Larsson be read first before this book for it will make this book more enjoyable. Both books are dark, violent and many times very disturbing, but had to be to make this novel so captivating. I couldn't stop listening I was so intrigued! The reader Simon Vance does an extraordinary job! Two thumbs up! I can't wait for the 3rd book.!