|
I will avoid spoiling Vol II in this review as you really do need to
read ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ before turning to ‘The Girl Who
Played With Fire’ as the first book sets up the action and the dynamics
of this dark delight. This makes the task of reviewing the follow-up
difficult, because much of the first novel’s back-story permeates into
Vol II like a lungful of Sarin gas.
Vol II starts with a curious and disturbing prologue that makes one
fearful of what might follow. An unnamed young girl finds herself
fastened to a steel-framed bed by leather straps. She is trapped by
someone evil, and someone with dark intentions. One naturally wonders
whether the unnamed girl is Lisbeth Salander, but the answers will not
be revealed until much else has happened. The girl is aged thirteen and
in terrible danger; but she can think about is happening.
The prologue makes the reader nervous, but fans of Salander should fear
not, as she makes her entrance in grand style in tropical Grenada on a
well deserved vacation. After the conclusion of Vol I, Salander
‘inherited’ a vast sum of money following the end of the Wennerstrom
affair, so she decides to see some of the world. Distanced from her love
interest, with pangs of jealousy due to Blomkvist’s carnal nature, and
his relationship with his business partner Erika Berge; the misfit
Salander cuts herself off. While exploring Grenada, Salander has a
relationship with a local youth - George Bland, but danger comes in the
shape of a Tornado named Matilda. In the ensuing tropical storm,
Salander sees another danger, a danger for a woman named Geraldine
Forbes. The danger does not come from Matilda but from Geraldine’s
husband Richard. It will take the moral outrage of Salander to restore
order just as the storm hits the mainland. Salander moves into action
and she takes no prisoners.
Salander returns to Sweden and resumes a physical relationship with an
old girlfriend Miriam Wu, who she affectionately calls Mimmi, even
giving her lover the keys to her flat. However, Salander like Batman has
her own Batcave, an expensive flat registered under one of her secret
identities. Being Salander, she has enemies. Her most dangerous enemy
being the sexual sadist and lawyer Nils Erik Bjurman – her legal
guardian; the same man who sexually abused her, and who Salander
inflicted a brutal revenge upon. Bjurman schemes on how to kill Salander,
because every waking hour he is haunted by his hatred of Salander and
what she did to him.
Meanwhile at Millennium Magazine, Mikael Blomkvist is puzzled by
Salander vanishing and refusing to return his calls. His lover and
business partner Erika Berger also has a dilemma. Despite loving her
role at Millennium, she has been offered the career opportunity of a
lifetime – a senior role in one of Sweden’s most prestigious media
companies. She keeps this secret from Blomkvist, in fact all of the
characters in the narrative have hidden motivations and secrets they
carry with them, for which there will be consequences. Blomkvist plans
to publish a special edition of Millennium to coincide with a book being
written exposing people trafficking, and the damaged women that find
themselves sucked into this evil web. Blomkvist hires freelance
journalists and partners Mia Johansson and Dag Svensson to pen the piece
from their upcoming book. Blomkvist knows the expose will destroy some
senior people in Swedish society but being the moral crusader, Blomkvist
just wishes to expose the hypocrisy that these people exhibit. He wants
to reveal their true self, not their masks.
Things take a turn for the worse, when both Johansson and Svensson are
found murdered, and the description of the fleeing assailant is that of
Lisbeth Salander. Then follows a complex web of darkness that seems to
originate, or at least relate to Lisbeth Salander, and her strange
behaviour which is illustrated in her passion [throughout this novel]
for complex mathematics. Her continual reading of ‘Dimension in
Mathematics by L.C. Parnault’ may at first be a method of indicating her
autistic/aspergers syndrome, or it could be something far more complex.
The Swedish Police assign a motley bunch of oddballs headed by the
wonderfully crafted Inspector Jan Bublanski [known behind his back as
‘Officer Bubble’]. As the hunt for Salander goes nationwide, the police
ponder the relationship she has with Blomkvist. Salander however is not
a woman to be messed with and between her bites of Billy’s Pan Pizza,
she is also fighting to clear her name, as well as preventing her lover
Miriam Wu getting embroiled in the fallout from the murders of
Blomkvist’s journalists. Salander has to contact her old boss Dragan
Armansky of Milton Security who advises her that her former guardian
Holger Palmgren is recovering from a serious stroke. Prior to the vile
lawyer Bjurman; Salander’s guardian had been the kindly Palmgren and
from her encounters and investigations we soon learn a great deal about
how Salander became the misfit she is. It seems that Salander has a twin
sister Camilla, who after [what is enigmatically described as] ‘all that
evil’ was sent to a foster home, while Salander was committed to St.
Stefan’s Psychiatric Hospital for Children. To reveal more would be
wrong, but suffice it to say, the revelations are scary, dark and give
insight into really evil people; the type that have no compassion for
life, only a craving to slake their darkest desires no matter how much
hurt they inflict upon the vulnerable.
As the novel gathers pace in the last third, we soon learn of a gangster
named ‘Zala’ and his henchmen the ‘Ranta Brothers’ as well as a walking
giant named Niederman who chomps steroids as regularly as he cracks
bones. Then as Miriam Wu is placed in mortal danger, Salander with some
help from a politician and ex-wrestling champion, Paolo Roberto come to
the rescue. Notice how many weird characters populate this book and how
I refer to them as if they were real people? This is because this novel
pulses with life, as well as death, in fact at times I became hypnotised
by Larsson’s writing style and the people he populates the narrative
with. In fact as odd as it sounds, some of the characters that appear in
this novel are far better delineated than some of the real people that
populate my own reality.
The conclusion to this novel is truly shocking, as we will learn about
the corruption that incarcerated the young Salander, and why she became
such a misfit operating outside of societies parameters. We’ll also
learn of her evil Guardian Bjuman’s role in the puzzle, but most
scarily, we will see who ‘Zala’ really is. I will warn you that little
of this novel is pretty; in fact it will disturb you and take root in
your brain like a tumour, but one that pulses insight and compassion. A
fine way to start 2009, as this will feature as one of the best novels
of crime fiction in 2009.
|
