The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson, 16 of 52

I have finished the trilogy at 2.13am Wednesday 16th June 2010. I literally did not want to put the book down until I had finished it. I have enjoyed the escapades of Blomkvist, Salander and Co. Nothing like a good old revenge story.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the last novel in the series. It picks up directly from where the Girl Who Played with Fire left us…I’m not going to provide any plot content, as I wouldn’t want to infringe on the enjoyment of others who are still to read the story. No Spoilers!

Suffice to say I was pleased with the pace of the book, only a couple of times did I think to myself  ‘get on with it’.  Larsson weaves a wonderful tale of the secret service, covert operations, seediness, security and surveillance methods. I think on the whole he creates an interesting and believable group of characters, the real skill he has is that the complex web of characters maintain their unique voices on the pages. It would have been easy to get confused with the different police operations and who belongs to what, but I didn’t – there was clarity.

After reading a fairly basic biography on Stieg Larsson I get the impression that this was a very interesting individual. This Vanity Fair article http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/12/hitchens-200912 gives a concise background on Larsson which ties in nicely with his book.  I couldn’t help but associate the character of Blomkvist with Larsson; he must have felt strongly about something to use his own life as a background to his main character.

It is interesting that most people seem to consider Salander the main character, but I think that both she and Blomkvist share this role pretty equally. Where the Salander character is strongest, and the main thread of the story, is her encapsulation of all the injustices that were perpetrated on the women in the story. I never felt though that Larsson was only talking about the abuse of the women in the story, I believe that he had a strong social justice message about society’s role and responsibility. Sex trafficking was a constant thread in the story and it is a global issue that needs to be dealt with seriously by Governments  http://www.facebook.com/FreeToShine.EndingSexTrafficking. The sad irony is that Larsson’s own de-facto partner of 32 years has been left without any rights to his estate due to an unusual aspect of Swedish law!

As I finished the book there was much of the story line that remained unresolved. Where is the twin sister? What about the kind Dr Jonasson? It is hard to be disappointed when the poor guy died, but there are rumours that other books exist, with up to 10 book outlines completed. This would be fantastic if it ever came to fruition, after all it has been attempted for Ian Fleming’s James Bond (Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang too – amazing fact!).  

Readability 9.5 out of 10

Cant put down rating 10 out of 10 

Recommend to others 9 out of 10

Do I want to read another book by this author – if by some miracle it could be done, yes please!