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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1 in Books
• Published on: 2010-04-01
• Released on: 2010-04-01
• Original language: Swedish
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

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• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
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Amazon.co.uk Review
A young girl lies in a hospital room, her tattooed body very close to death -- there is a bullet lodged in her brain. Several rooms away is the man who tried to kill her, his own body grievously wounded from axe blows inflicted by the girl he has tried to kill. She is Lisbeth Salander, computer hacker and investigator, and the man is her father, a murderous Russian gangster. If Salander recovers from her injuries, she is more than likely to be put on trial for three murders -- the authorities regard her as a dangerous individual. But she won't see the inside of a courtroom if her father manages to kill her first.

This is the high-tension opening premise of the third book in Stieg Larsson’s phenomenally successful trilogy of crime novels which the late author (a crusading journalist) delivered to his publisher just before his death. But does it match up to its two electrifying predecessors, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire? The success of Larsson’s remarkable sequence of books is, to some degree, unprecedented. Crime fiction in translation has, of course, made a mark before (notably with Peter Hoeg’s Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, published, in fact, by Larsson's British publisher, Christopher MacLehose). But even the success of that book gave no hint of the juggernauts that the Salander books would be (the late author's secondary hero is the journalist Blomqvist -- who bears more than a passing resemblance to Stieg Larsson himself).

There are two overriding reasons for the hold that this massive trilogy has attained on the public: machine-tooled plotting which juggles the various narrative elements with a master's touch and (above all) the vividly realised character of Lisbeth Salander herself. She is something of a unique creation in the field of crime and thriller fiction: emotionally damaged, vulnerable and sociopathic (all of this concealed behind a forbidding Goth appearance), but she is also the ultimate survivor, somehow managing to stay alive despite the machinations of some deeply unpleasant villains (and the new book has a slew of those) as well as the hostility of often stupid establishment figures, who want her out of the picture quite as passionately as the bad guys. She is, of course, aided by the protective journalist Blomqvist, despite the fact that she had dumped him as a lover. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest brings together all the elements that have made the previous books of the sequence so successful. Its relentless pace may be a bit exhausting for some readers, but most will be happy to strap themselves in for the ride. It's just a shame that this will be the final book in the sequence (though conspiracy theorists are hinting that Larsson began another manuscript before his untimely death…) --Barry Forshaw

Review
'With the spiky and sassy Lisbeth Salander - punkish wild child, traumatised survivor of the 'care' system, sexual adventurer and computer hacker of genius - Larsson created the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years' Independent. '[To] be read in great hungry chunks' Louise France, Observer.

From the Back Cover
THE TRIAL: Lisbeth Salander - outsider and apparent enemy of society - is charged with attempted murder. The state has also ruled that she is mentally unstable, and should be locked away in an institution once again. But she is closely guarded in a hospital, having taken a bullet to the head, so how will she prove her innocence?
THE ENEMY: Pulling the strings of the prosecution is the powerful inner circle of Sapo, the state security police. Determined to protect the secrets and corruption at Sweden's rotten core, Sapo is not an adversary to take on alone.
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST: Only with the help of Mikael Blomkvist and the journalists at Millennium magazine can Salander avoid the fate that has been decided for her. Together they form a compelling and dynamic alliance. This final volume of the Millennium Trilogy is the culmination of one of the mesmerizing fictional achievements of our time.

Customer Reviews

A fitting conclusion.
For those who think that I'm reviewing this before it is avaliable in English, let me tell you that I live in Holland, where it has been available in English since 26th September. I don't know why, and I don't care, but it was a great surprise to see it sitting there in the bookshop on Saturday!

Anyway, the third and final part of Larsson's amazing trilogy doesn't disappoint, and will certainly be revered by those who have already feasted on Lisbeth Salander's two previous outings. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest picks up from where the second part finishes. Salander is laid up in hospital recovering from a bullet wound in the head, but she has inadvertendly started a chain of events in the most secretive of government agencies, and they are determined to cover their tracks at all costs.

This whole series must surely be one of the most original ever to be committed to paper - a thoroughly unique (anti?) heroine in Salander and revolving around a investigative newspaper? Good Heavens. Even so, this whole series has been a masterpiece of plotting on Larsson's part - it is a complex web, but the writing is stark and simple that one never really gets lost in its intricacies. And make no mistake about it, it's a page turner - Larsson is not afraid to throw in the odd curveball that you're really not expecting to mix it all up, and the story just keeps on going with unstoppable momentum. This really is the perfect finish, when all the cracks that appeared in the first two books start to creak and grown and eventually the whole things falls down in a crash and a cloud of dust. I simply didn't want it to end. Famtastic.

In short, I can't praise it highly enough - not only is the whole series a brilliant crime caper, but as all great crime stories should, Larsson takes a mighty swipe at the post-war Swedish political landscape at the same time(I love Micheal Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series set in Italy for the same reason.)

Anyway, I was hooked halfway through the first (and, in my opinion, weakest) on the series, but this one really cranks up the pressure. It truly is one of the greatest crime masterworks of the decade and its such a crying shame that Larsson died long before his time and is no longer around to produce such great stories. I, for one, will miss Salander enormously.

5 stars, no question.

A page turner - after 600 pages
If by any chance you are reading this review wondering if you might get a taster of this much talked about trilogy by diving in at the end, my advice is simple: don't. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' was a brilliantly original start to this series, and introduced us to one of the most compelling anti-hero creations in Lisbeth Salandar. The second volume - 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' - lost much of the sophistication of the first, and was a lesser book for it - but actually managed to be even more gripping. This third volume could not be more different.

It might have been titled 'The Girl Who Got Lost Between The Covers', since our heroine Salander is present for only around twenty percent of its gigantic 750 pages. Without the benefit of the first two books this volume would be utterly bemusing. The scene-setting and recapping takes around three hundred pages - with Larsson introducing a seemingly endless cast list of spies, policemen and women, journalists and officials. For Swedish readers this may be more satisfying, since he appears to be fictionalising modern Swedish history through conspiracy. But for us it is largely bewildering.

And how we miss Salander. Such is the power of this fictional creation that during her brief appearances the book roars back into life. Sadly however she doesn't become the central figure again until around 600 pages in - and it is only then that the book truly becomes a page turner. Happily Larsson recaptures the vulnerable, complex Salander of the first volume, and again makes this dysfunctional Aspergers girl compelling and adorable.

But while we wait for Salander, and the book, to capture us again, Larson actually creates two further ballsy female characters, one of which proves the love interest for Larsson's alter-ego, Mikael Blomkvist. Larsson attempts to give levity to this approach by dropping in occasional and flimsy one page factual interludes about the role of the female warrior in history. It's a creaky device - and he needn't have bothered. The fact is, it's refreshing to have strong women at the centre of a thriller, and there is no doubting Larsson's ability to create powerful female characters.

Most Amazon reviews are ecstatic - but that must surely be a measure of the power and originality of this trilogy, and not of this book. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest would have made little impact had it had been the first in the series; and if looked at on its merits it makes an adequate but ultimately disappointing last.

A great ending
The sad thing here is that the author Stieg Larsson is dead. At the end of the book i
felt like i wanted/needed a sequel, but realised it could never happen. Its the same
feeling experienced by the end of the second book, that excruciating cliffhanger.

As you'd expect Lisbeth Salander is in fact alive, albeit taking a bullet to the head
and being in intensive care. The same people who declared her mentally ill and sentenced her
to that instituion want her to go back there. They make her take the fall for two murders and
also the attempted murder of her father.

But Lisbeth is ready to fight back. The journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at
Millennium magazine provide invaluable help for her to prove her innocence and identify
the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vunerable to become victims of violence and abuse.

In my opinion it feels like a continuation of the second book rather than stand alone novel.
As a result its vital to read the other two books to understand the story and characters.

After about 100 pages or so the book takes off. Your subjected to new characters incredibly fast in
an attempt to explain the conspiracy against Lisbeth. The pace never gives up, its a genuinely
exhilirating read. Its a great ending to the trilogy, and it will no doubt leave you wishing for
that little bit more. Thank you Stieg Larsson.