The Girl Who Played With Fire

Book Name : The Girl Who Played With Fire
Author : Stieg Larsson

What is it about : Our heroine, Salander, a gun-totting, axe-wielding kick-boxer, really kicked some ass out there - basically a Made-In-Sweden Lara Croft who got mixed up with some "national security" issues and had to confront not only demons from her past but also a steroid-pumped half-brother (honest...) who could not feel any pain (a rare form of muscle condition, again honest...) and a kick at his goolies would cause only minor irritations (but honestly...). Yeh, it's all in the book. Our hero Blomkvist, a journalist cum investigator came to her rescue right at the end when she survived a bullet wound in her skull and dug her way out of the ground after being buried alive. I gathered that she survived all this as there would be a sequel to this book.

Some thoughts after having read the book : Far fetched ?  Impossible ? Honestly, no way ! Hey Man, this was the land of Sweden where apparently our Blomkvist slept with just about all the females in Stockholm and we were led to believe that beneath that Swedish land of calm, green and laid-back facade, there laid sinister sex-slaves-trafficking, buried bodies and cold war spies aplenty ! I had to say - I loved it ! The almost-500 pages just turned effortlessly as I admired the author with his skills of holding the tension on multiple fronts; patient, pain-staking build-up of almost ALL the characters. I particularly liked the sessions describing the sentimental relationship between Salander and her mentor - now disabled and hospital-bound.

Would I recommend this book to you : When I first came across these guys in the first book (I watched the film actually) - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and found the film lengthy (2.5 hours) but patiently drawn out - an absolute ace which stood out from the run-of-the-mill thriller produced with the short-film-let's-make-a-quick-buck formula. The book would take you some time to get over but you would like it and I could not wait to read the last installment - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.