It is a rare sequel that is better than the first book but Stieg Larsson pulled it off and now the wait is almost over -- on July 28th Lisbeth Slander will be back in The Girl Who Played With Fire. (This gives you just enough time to read the first in the series, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which turns paperback in June.) In this new novel, Lisbeth is the focus of the story and she is still a brash, brilliant and just a little crazy young woman. Journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, is also back and still very likeable, but as in the first book, it is Lisbeth that kept me turning the pages.

Mikael is back at Millenium magazine and getting ready to publish an investigative piece of journalism about sex-trafficking in Sweden that is sure to cause a lot of ripples in business and political circles. Just before the story is run, the two journalists responsible for the investigation are killed and Lisbeth's fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. So Lisbeth goes to ground and Mikael starts his own investigation into the murders.

Though this storyline is compelling and interesting, it is the investigation into Lisbeth (the woman trying to solve Fermat's Theorem over morning coffee) and her past that kept me awake nights. In this novel we learn about Lisbeth's backstory; what made this young woman so fragile and terrified of any intimate relationships? Complex and compelling, I now begin the wait for the final book. ~Patti