The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium Series Book 3) by Stieg Larsson (Epub)

Description

In the third volume of the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head.

But she’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she’ll need to identify those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she’ll seek revenge–against the man who tried to killer her and against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life.

User’s Reviews

Review “A thoroughly gripping read . . . Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s fierce pixie of a heroine, is one of the most original characters in a thriller to come along in a while—a gamin, Audrey Hepburn look-alike but with tattoos and piercings, the take-no-prisoners attitude of Lara Croft and the cool, unsentimental intellect of Mr. Spock . . . Owes less to the Silence of the Lambs horror genre than to something by John le Carré.”—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times “The literary equivalent of a caffeine rush . . . Larsson was one of those rare writers who could keep you up until 3 a.m. and then make you want to rush home the next night to do it again . . . Larsson is something like John Grisham [but] Larsson held an extra ace: the creation of Salander.”—Newsweek “It’s over! And I feel the same sense of pleasure and loss that I did when I watched the finale of ‘The Sopranos’ and the last episodes of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ . . . Salander is, I promise, someone you will never forget . . . Anyone who enjoys grounding their imaginations in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of exciting pages about the way we live now ought to take advantage of this trilogy.”—Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune “Larsson has produced a coup de foudre, a novel that is complex, satisfying, clever, moral . . . This is a grown-up novel for grown-up readers, who want something more than a quick fix and a car chase. And it’s why the Millennium trilogy is rightly a publishing phenomenon all over the world.”—Guardian“A heart-stopping showdown showcases one of crime fiction’s most unforgettable characters—and cements Larsson’s rep as one of its most passionate and original voices.”—People “Confirms Larsson… Amazon.com Review Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2010 As the finale to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is not content to merely match the adrenaline-charged pace that made international bestsellers out of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Instead, it roars with an explosive storyline that blows the doors off the series and announces that the very best has been saved for last. A familiar evil lies in wait for Lisbeth Salander, but this time, she must do more than confront the miscreants of her past; she must destroy them. Much to her chagrin, survival requires her to place a great deal of faith in journalist Mikael Blomkvist and trust his judgment when the stakes are highest. To reveal more of the plot would be criminal, as Larsson’s mastery of the unexpected is why millions have fallen hard for his work. But rest assured that the odds are again stacked, the challenges personal, and the action fraught with neck-snapping revelations in this snarling conclusion to a thrilling triad. This closing chapter to The Girl’s pursuit of justice is guaranteed to leave readers both satisfied and saddened once the final page has been turned. –Dave Callanan –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. chapter 1Friday, April 8Dr. Jonasson was woken by a nurse five minutes before the helicopter was expected to land. It was just before 1:30 in the morning.”What?” he said, confused.”Rescue Service helicopter coming in. Two patients. An injured man and a younger woman. The woman has gunshot wounds.””All right,” Jonasson said wearily.Although he had slept for only half an hour, he felt groggy. He was on the night shift in the ER at Sahlgrenska hospital in Göteborg. It had been a strenuous evening.By 12:30 the steady flow of emergency cases had eased off. He had made a round to check on the state of his patients and then gone back to the staff bedroom to try to rest for a while. He was on duty until 6:00, and seldom got the chance to sleep even if no emergency patients came in. But this time he had fallen asleep almost as soon as he turned out the light.Jonasson saw lightning out over the sea. He knew that the helicopter was coming in the nick of time. All of a sudden a heavy downpour lashed at the window. The storm had moved in over Göteborg.He heard the sound of the chopper and watched as it banked through the storm squalls down towards the helipad. For a second he held his breath when the pilot seemed to have difficulty controlling the aircraft. Then it vanished from his field of vision and he heard the engine slowing to land. He took a hasty swallow of his tea and set down the cup.Jonasson met the emergency team in the admissions area. The other doctor on duty took on the first patient who was wheeled in-an elderly man with his head bandaged, apparently with a serious wound to the face. Jonasson was left with the second patient, the woman who had been shot. He did a quick visual examination: it looked like she was a teenager, very dirty and bloody, and severely wounded. He lifted the blanket that the Rescue Service had wrapped around her body and saw that the wounds to her hip and shoulder were bandaged with duct tape, which he considered a pretty clever idea. The tape kept bacteria out and blood in. One bullet had entered her hip and gone straight through the muscle tissue. He gently raised her shoulder and located the entry wound in her back. There was no exit wound: the round was still inside her shoulder. He hoped it had not penetrated her lung, and since he did not see any blood in the woman’s mouth he concluded that probably it had not.”Radiology,” he told the nurse in attendance. That was all he needed to say.Then he cut away the bandage that the emergency team had wrapped around her skull. He froze when he saw another entry wound. The woman had been shot in the head, and there was no exit wound there either.Jonasson paused for a second, looking down at the girl. He felt dejected. He often described his job as being like that of a goalkeeper. Every day people came to his place of work in varying conditions but with one objective: to get help.Jonasson was the goalkeeper who stood between the patient and Fonus Funeral Service. His job was to decide what to do. If he made the wrong decision, the patient might die or perhaps wake up disabled for life. Most often he made the right decision, because the vast majority of injured people had an obvious and specific problem. A stab wound to the lung or a crushing injury after a car crash were both particular and recognizable problems that could be dealt with. The survival of the patient depended on the extent of the damage and on Jonasson’s skill.There were two kinds of injury that he hated. One was a serious burn case, because no matter what measures he took the burns would almost inevitably result in a lifetime of suffering. The second was an injury to the brain.The girl on the gurney could live with a piece of lead in her hip and a piece of lead in her shoulder. But a piece of lead inside her brain was a trauma of a wholly different magnitude. He was suddenly aware of the nurse saying something.”Sorry. I wasn’t listening.””It’s her.””What do you mean?””It’s Lisbeth Salander. The girl they’ve been hunting for the past few weeks, for the triple murder in Stockholm.”Jonasson looked again at the unconscious patient’s face. He realized at once that the nurse was right. He and the whole of Sweden had seen Salander’s passport photograph on billboards outside every newspaper kiosk for weeks. And now the murderer herself had been shot, which was surely poetic justice of a sort.But that was not his concern. His job was to save his patient’s life, irrespective of whether she was a triple murderer or a Nobel Prize winner. Or both.Then the efficient chaos, the same in every ER the world over, erupted. The staff on Jonasson’s shift set about their appointed tasks. Salander’s clothes were cut away. A nurse reported on her blood pressure-100/70-while the doctor put his stethoscope to her chest and listened to her heartbeat. It was surprisingly regular, but her breathing was not quite normal.Jonasson did not hesitate to classify Salander’s condition as critical. The wounds in her shoulder and hip could wait until later, with a compress on each, or even with the duct tape that some inspired soul had applied. What mattered was her head. Jonasson ordered tomography with the new and improved CT scanner that the hospital had lately acquired.Jonasson had a view of medicine that was at times unorthodox. He thought doctors often drew conclusions that they could not substantiate. This meant that they gave up far too easily; alternatively, they spent too much time at the acute stage trying to work out exactly what was wrong with the patient so as to decide on the right treatment. This was correct procedure, of course. The problem was that the patient was in danger of dying while the doctor was still doing his thinking.But Jonasson had never before had a patient with a bullet in her skull. Most likely he would need a brain surgeon. He had all the theoretical knowledge required to make an incursion into the brain, but he did not by any means consider himself a brain surgeon. He felt inadequate, but all of a sudden he realized that he might be luckier than he deserved. Before he scrubbed up and put on his operating clothes he sent for the nurse.”There’s an American professor from Boston working at the Karolinska hospital in Stockholm. He happens to be in Göteborg tonight, staying at the Elite Park Avenue on Avenyn. He just gave a lecture on brain research. He’s a good friend of mine. Could you get the number?”While Jonasson was still waiting for the X-rays, the nurse came back with the number of the Elite Park Avenue. Jonasson picked up the phone. The night porter at the Elite Park Avenue was very reluctant to wake a guest at that time of night and Jonasson had to come up with a few choice phrases about the critical nature of the situation before his call was put through.”Good morning, Frank,” Jonasson said when the call was finally answered. “It’s Anders. Do you feel like coming over to Sahlgrenska to help out in a brain op?””Are you bullshitting me?” Dr. Frank Ellis had lived in Sweden for many years and was fluent in Swedish-albeit with an American accent- but when Jonasson spoke to him in Swedish, Ellis always replied in his mother tongue.”The patient is in her mid-twenties. Entry wound, no exit.””And she’s alive?””Weak but regular pulse, less regular breathing, blood pressure one hundred over seventy. She also has a bullet wound in her shoulder and another in her hip. But I know how to handle those two.””Sounds promising,” Ellis said.”Promising?””If somebody has a bullet in their head and they’re still alive, that points to hopeful.””I understand. . . . Frank, can you help me out?””I spent the evening in the company of good friends, Anders. I got to bed at 1:00 and no doubt I have an impressive blood alcohol content.””I’ll make the decisions and do the surgery. But I need somebody to tell me if I’m doing anything stupid. Even a falling-down drunk Professor Ellis is several classes better than I could ever be when it comes to assessing brain damage.””OK, I’ll come. But you’re going to owe me one.””I’ll have a taxi waiting outside by the time you get down to the lobby. The driver will know where to drop you, and a nurse will be there to meet you and get you scrubbed in.””I had a patient a number of years ago, in Boston-I wrote about the case in the New England Journal of Medicine. It was a girl the same age as your patient here. She was walking to the university when someone shot her with a crossbow. The arrow entered at the outside edge of her left eyebrow and went straight through her head, exiting from almost the middle of the back of her neck.””And she survived?””She looked like nothing on earth when she came in. We cut off the arrow shaft and put her head in a CT scanner. The arrow went straight through her brain. By all known reckoning she should have been dead, or at least suffered such massive trauma that she would have been in a coma.””And what was her condition?””She was conscious the whole time. Not only that; she was terribly frightened, of course, but she was completely rational. Her only problem was that she had an arrow through her skull.””What did you do?””Well, I got the forceps and pulled out the arrow and bandaged the wounds. More or less.””And she lived to tell the tale?””Obviously her condition was critical, but the fact is we could have sent her home the same day. I’ve seldom had a healthier patient.”Jonasson wondered whether Ellis was pulling his leg.”On the other hand,” Ellis went on, “I had a forty-two-year-old patient in Stockholm some years ago who banged his head on a windowsill. He began to feel sick immediately and was taken by ambulance to the ER. When I got to him he was unconscious. He had a small bump and a very slight bruise. But he never regained consciousness and died after nine days in intensive care. To this day I have no idea why he died. In the autopsy report, we wrote brain haemorrhage resulting from an accident, but not one of us was satisfied with that assessment. The bleeding was so minor, and located in an area that shouldn’t have affected anything else at all. And yet his liver, kidneys, heart, and lungs shut down one after the other. The older I get, the more I think it’s like a game of roulette. I don’t believe we’ll ever figure out precisely how the brain works.” He tapped on the X-ray with a pen. “What do you intend to do?””I was hoping you would tell me.””Let’s hear your diagnosis.””Well, first of all, it seems to be a small-calibre bullet. It entered at the temple, and then stopped about four centimetres into the brain. It’s resting against the lateral ventricle. There’s bleeding there.””How will you proceed?””To use your terminology, get some forceps and extract the bullet by the same route it went in.””Excellent idea. I would use the thinnest forceps you have.””It’s that simple?””What else can we do in this case? We could leave the bullet where it is, and she might live to be a hundred, but it’s also a risk. She might develop epilepsy, migraines, all sorts of complaints. And one thing you really don’t want to do is drill into her skull and then operate a year from now when the wound itself has healed. The bullet is located away from the major blood vessels. So I would recommend that you extract it, but . . .””But what?””The bullet doesn’t worry me so much. She’s survived this far and that’s a good omen for her getting through having the bullet removed too. The real problem is here.” He pointed at the X-ray. “Around the entry wound you have all sorts of bone fragments. I can see at least a dozen that are a couple of millimetres long. Some are embedded in the brain tissue. That’s what could kill her if you’re not careful.””Isn’t that part of the brain associated with numbers and mathematical capacity?” Jonasson said.Ellis shrugged. “Mumbo jumbo. I have no idea what these particular grey cells are for. You can only do your best. You operate. I’ll look over your shoulder.”Mikael Blomkvist looked up at the clock and saw that it was just after 3:00 in the morning. He was handcuffed and increasingly uncomfortable. He closed his eyes for a moment. He was dead tired but running on adrenaline. He opened them again and gave the policeman an angry glare. Inspector Thomas Paulsson had a shocked expression on his face. They were sitting at a kitchen table in a white farmhouse called Gosseberga, somewhere near Nossebro. Blomkvist had heard of the place for the first time less than twelve hours earlier.There was no denying the disaster that had occurred.”Imbecile,” Blomkvist said.”Now, you listen here-“”Imbecile,” Blomkvist said again. “I warned you he was dangerous, for Christ’s sake. I told you that you would have to handle him like a live grenade. He’s murdered at least three people with his bare hands and he’s built like a tank. And you send a couple of village policemen to arrest him as if he were some Saturday night drunk.”Blomkvist shut his eyes again, wondering what else could go wrong that night.He had found Lisbeth Salander just after midnight. She was very badly wounded. He had sent for the police and the Rescue Service.The only thing that had gone right was that he had persuaded them to send a helicopter to take the girl to Sahlgrenska hospital. He had given them a clear description of her injuries and the bullet wound in her head, and some bright spark at the Rescue Service got the message.Even so, it had taken over half an hour for the Puma from the helicopter unit in Säve to arrive at the farmhouse. Blomkvist had gotten two cars out of the barn. He switched on their headlights to illuminate a landing area in the field in front of the house.The helicopter crew and two paramedics had proceeded in a routine and professional manner. One of the medics tended to Salander while the other took care of Alexander Zalachenko, known locally as Karl Axel Bodin. Zalachenko was Salander’s father and her worst enemy. He had tried to kill her, but he had failed. Blomkvist had found him in the woodshed at the farm with a nasty-looking gash-probably from an axe- in his face and some shattering damage to one of his legs which Blomkvist did not bother to investigate. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Bookmarks Magazine I love this stuff, although why, exactly, has long been something of a mystery to me, writes Laura Miller (Salon). Certainly, the series as a whole has its share of action–serial killers, sex trafficking, political conspiracy–and compelling messages about violence against women, social responsibility, and good and evil. And Salander is a compellingly abused, antisocial, and bisexual antihero. But many critics felt hard-pressed to identify why the trilogy stands out. After all, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest has its share of faults–including clichéd, workmanlike prose; tangled plots; and tedious repetition. Perhaps the Guardian sums it up: “This is a grown-up novel for grown-up readers, who want something more than a quick fix and a car chase. And it’s why the Millennium trilogy is rightly a publishing phenomenon all over the world.” –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Publishers Weekly The exhilarating conclusion to bestseller Larsson’s Millennium trilogy (after The Girl Who Played with Fire) finds Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant computer hacker who was shot in the head in the final pages of Fire, alive, though still the prime suspect in three murders in Stockholm. While she convalesces under armed guard, journalist Mikael Blomkvist works to unravel the decades-old coverup surrounding the man who shot Salander: her father, Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet intelligence defector and longtime secret asset to Säpo, Sweden’s security police. Estranged throughout Fire, Blomkvist and Salander communicate primarily online, but their lack of physical interaction in no way diminishes the intensity of their unconventional relationship. Though Larsson (1954–2004) tends toward narrative excess, his was an undeniably powerful voice in crime fiction that will be sorely missed. 500,000 first printing. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From AudioFile Simon Vance and Stieg Larsson are to blame for an exhausting 10 days in which I spent every spare daytime moment and most of each night listening to Lisbeth Salander outwit Swedish bad guys. Though I am groggy, I am grateful. This is a terrific finale to the worldwide bestselling Swedish series about the skinny, bisexual, socially hostile computer wizard Lizbeth Salander, ace reporter Mikael Blomkvist, and a host of nefarious criminals, bureaucrats, police, and politicians. The compulsively listenable Simon Vance personifies men, women, young, and old so well that one hesitates to interrupt their conversations by turning off the book. And he propels the narrative with fine timing and a seductive voice that leaves the listener satiated and happy. Get this book and start listening now. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist *Starred Review* When we last saw Lisbeth Salander, she was teetering between life and death. And who wouldn’t be after having been shot by her father and buried alive by her brother? Salander was rescued, at the end of The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), by journalist Mikael Blomkvist. She’s now in a Swedish hospital, slowly mending and awaiting trial for three murders she didn’t commit. Meanwhile, her father, a former Soviet spy, is down the hall, recovering from the injuries he sustained when Lisbeth stuck an ax in his head. Blomkvist, Salander’s loyal friend, sets out to prove her innocence, but to do so he must expose a decades-old conspiracy within the Swedish secret service that has resulted in, among other travesties, a lifetime of abuse heaped upon Salander, whose very life threatens to expose the deadly charade. The late Larsson (this third novel in his Millennium Trilogy is his final book) can be accused of heaping too much plot between two covers—in addition to the Salander story, there is an elaborate subplot involving Blomkvist’s lover, Erica, and her travails as the first female editor of a major Stockholm newspaper—but he is remarkably agile at keeping multiple balls in the air. But it wouldn’t really matter if he weren’t a skilled craftsman because Salander is such a bravura heroine—steel will and piercing intelligence veiling a heartbreaking vulnerability—that we’d willingly follow her through any bramble bush of a plot. She spends more than half of this novel in a hospital bed, but orchestrating the action from her Palm computer, she dominates the stage like Lear. There are few characters as formidable as Lisbeth Salander in contemporary fiction of any kind. She will be sorely missed. –Bill Ott –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ It’s taking me a while but having read the first two in the series within a few weeks I am now onto the third by the original author and I am loving the series. This is not as ‘exciting’ as the first two without adding spoilers but I feel like it will conclude the story well. I am not interested in reading the books that follow by the other author as I have read disappointing reviews and did not enjoy the 2nd movie i believe one of those was based upon. This has taken me much longer as it is not fast paced at all and more detailed on historic events and investigative detail. Enjoying it all the same. The whole trilogy would make a great gift.

⭐ I loved the first two books, and the last and final one didn’t disappoint. The plot was detailed, well-done and interesting. My only complaint, even though the end was satisfyingly vengeful against all the bad guys, was that it was a little too neat and tidy. And I wish the relationship between the two main characters was fleshed out a little bit more and didn’t come to an abrupt end like it did. It’s too bad the author didn’t live long enough to take the story any further, if he would have. But overall, it’s the first fiction I’ve read in a long time and now I’ve definitely picked up an appetite for more crime/detective stuff.

⭐ Steig Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy is one of the most documented, most reviewed, and most successful sellers on Amazon. This review is not of the books per se, that would be about as redundant as possible. This short review (if found like a needle in a haystack by someone looking for this specific topic) is a product review of the Random House Large Print editions in soft cover, which I purchased from Amazon as they came out in 2009-10.Volumes as large as this, purchased as mass-market paperbacks can be as cumbersome to read as eye strain can get. If you are not a Kindle reader, take great comfort in physically holding a nice big book, and love that new book smell, this is the way to go. The soft cover binding is both strong and pliable, easy to hold on your lap, in both your hands, or set up on your chest in bed. The large print is a very comfortable contrast typeface that is perfect whether or not you wear glasses. The paper quality is superb, and all in all, Random House has spared no expense at producing a high-quality product for boomers who like to read “real books” and want to rest the eyes when devouring a massive epic like this one. At $20-25 per book, you might be thinking why not just buy the hard-back edition. Good question! At the time it was even higher priced than this one and I was under wallet restrictions. I do have to say, however, these large editions are handsome on the shelf, feel nice and comfortable in handling, and offer the perfect mixture of easy on the eyes and perfect manual dexterity friendliness. You can’t go wrong with a publisher like Random House, their bindings are solid, paper quality the highest, and their print is superior to many others.

⭐ Okay, let’s start with the first book. In my opinion, Dragon took well over 200 pages to get going. Once the mystery took hold, in my opinion, the final few hundred pages flew by.The second book, Fire, took about 175 pages to get going. But that too had a finishing kick that was terrific.The final book, Hornet’s Nest, started from the beginning and didn’t stop. I loved all 3 books. But to me the real trick and great concept is what Larsson did with the main characters in the second and third books.****A little spoiler here, but nothing that ruins the stories.**** We all know the main characters for all 3 books are Salander and Blomkvist. Larsson did something remarkable in the second and third books that I’ve never read in any book with 2 main characters. Larsson was able to continue the story of these 2 throughout both books, but they don’t talk to each other until the last page of either the 2nd or 3rd book! Actually in both instances, it’s the last paragraph! Brilliant writing. Incredible how he pulled this off.I’m not going to discuss the details of how women are treated in these books. I’d venture to say if any of you have read any sort of fictional mysteries or so-called true crime books, then you’ve no doubt have read a lot worse. Suffice it to say one victim gets her revenge and you are very happy for her. In Larsson’s skilled description, the attacker gets what he deserves.I know there are lots of 1 & 2 star reviews for all 3 books, due in part to their length and probably, their pacing. I can only say, in my opinion, these 3 books are great reads. As I stated above, the first two move quite slowly for a couple hundred pages. But please give these a chance. In my opinion, once you finish the first, you’ll want to get thru all 3 as quickly as possible.

⭐ There are no words to describe my fascination with these books. I loved all three of the books about the girl with the dragon tattoo. I literally could not put them down. I waited eagerly for the American made movie of the first book. After seeing it, I rented the 3 Swedish movies for each of the novels. I was just as enthralled, especially with the Swedish versions. I wish an author could continue the saga, doing justice to the original books and writing style of Stieg Larsson. I almost went into depression when I had read all 3 books and had no more to read. As in some series, the sequels do not keep up to the quality of the original. That is not true in this case. My blood pressure was surging and my pulse racing with each novel. They truly put you on the edge of your seat. If you want some exciting reading material, begin this series. The stories are mysterious filled with great psychological elements and unusual plot twists and turns. The characters are well developed. It was refreshing not to be able to guess some of the outcomes of the subplots. I was so involved and curious, I had all could to restrain myself from paging ahead so I could find out what the outcome was. This book and the others in the series are a “5+” in my opinion.

⭐ Lisbeth Salander is among my favorite characters in the books I’ve read. Despite (and sometimes because of) her “couldn’t care less about you” attitude and her free use of violence, it’s still easy to sympathize with her and root for her. She’s been a victim of many horrible acts throughout her life and this book brings them all to light and tries to bring some closure. It has many of the characters you loved (and hated) from the previous novels and brings it all together. While having the same characters makes the book feel similar to the others, the main plot is different enough to make it distinctive. The ending was very satisfying and fitting; however, I couldn’t help but want more and feel sorry Larsson isn’t around to enjoy the popularity of his work and to continue it. If anyone does finish the fourth book which he started I will definitely read it, though with somewhat reduced expectations.”The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” starts right where “The Girl Who Played With Fire” left off. Since that book left with so many loose ends, it’s good to see how they all get tied together instead of just getting a “Reader’s Digest” summary version. Zalachenko is hospitalized but he still remains a threat, while Niedermann proves even more dangerous. The big story though is something only touched on previously – who are the people responsible for protecting Zalachenko and having Salander declared incompetent? Blomkvist’s continuing quest to help Salander clear her name uncovers a conspiracy within the government. The group of conspirators continues to operate and they have no qualms about using any means necessary in the name of self-preservation. Again both Blomkvist and Salander share center stage in the story, though separate for the most part. Berger also returns with her own plot line, intersecting at times with the main story. The Vanger family is entirely absent this time.If you enjoyed the first two books in this “Millennium” series, you will almost certainly enjoy this last entry. It’s easy to get addicted to reading it and it’s an easy read like his other novels. There is enough repetition of the main plot points from “The Girl Who Played With Fire” done here to refresh one’s memory, without being so much that it’s boring. I’m not sure if it’s enough to read this one without reading the previous novel, but regardless, each book is so well written I highly recommend reading the whole series in order.

⭐ I consider this to be the best of the triad of books written by this author. This was much more of a mystery , where the other two for some reason while still good mysteries , seem to be very interested in deviant sexual behavior. It definitely helped if you read the first two books otherwise you would be trying to figure out what was going on from time to time. This book was much more devoted to the characters and the interplay between the characters and the fine and sometimes troubling moral distinctions and judgments that they had to make & what they wanted to do about them. This book was very close to real life where many times there is no black and white answer to a troubling problem but simply many many shades of gray.I gave the Kindle edition 3 1/2 stars because it does not contain maps as do the paperback editions, which I discovered when I stopped in to a local bookstore and happen to take a look at the paperback editions that were there for sale. As good as this book was, and it was very good, many times I wish I had a map of Sweden so I could understand exactly where they were going, how they got there, and why they went the way they did.

⭐ I love the Steig Larsson books and I’m devastated that he isn’t around to be able to write any more.My family gave up on seeing me when I was reading these books. I read the entire series in a week. A friend had given me The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo several years ago and I had put off reading it because she said it was “really, really good.” She was right, and as I feared, I became obsessed once I began it, which is why I waited until I retired to read it.The book that’s the subject of this review is the final book (other than a non-Larsson) in the series. It does not disappoint. If you have read the other two, you’ll definitely want to read this last one. It’s hard to put it down once you start, so give yourself some free time to immerse yourself in it.

⭐ Read the first part of the trilogy :”The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” before you read the others, which was a most original piece of crime fiction, published posthumously, to worldwide acclaim after the Swedish journalist author’s death.There are also a couple of movies i.e. if you don’t know already.The eponymous “Girl” is probably the most interesting female character since Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlet O’Hara, or, maybe one or two of Jane Austin’s.The plot is riveting and wide ranging, the action hilariously bloodcurdling and the different characters support the narrative well.This is part III of the trilogy. Its a good read, but start with the “Dragon Tattoo” to get off on the right right track.The trilogy is a superb achievement by the late author and deserves your attention. You will not be disappointed.I bought the three books on Kindle some time ago and reread the third just the other day.Magic if you are going on a relaxing beach holiday.

⭐ Given the multitude of reviews that aptly summarize what this book is about, I’ll just say that The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest is an admirable conclusion to Stieg Larsson’s highly successful trilogy. On the plus side, the book provides a credible, mostly satisfying wrap-up of the various plots and sub-plots carried forward from the first two books in the series. Further, the concluding 150-200 pages provide a fast-paced, satisfying read. However, the reading experience leading up to the concluding pages was often tedious and, at times, boring. The primary reason for this is that Larsson filled the book with a lot of minutiae, too much detail and so many minor characters that I felt I needed a scorecard to keep track of who’s who. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest would have, in my opinion, greatly benefited from some serious editing that resulted in the book being at least 100 pages shorter. For me, this book is a good example of where “less would have been more.” In addition, while the book is generally satisfying, it basically lacks suspense and is predictable. There’s no way that most readers of the first two books in this series aren’t going to want to read The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest and will likely be satisfied with the experience overall. But, before doing so, be forewarned that this book is very unevenly paced and, for the most part, slow-paced (especially during the first third).

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