The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - Hardcover

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

'By some alchemy, Larsson has made a character who ought to be completely unbelievable into one of the most compelling and convincing in modern fiction ... one wonders what Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple would make of her, but Lisbeth Salander bids fair to join them in the ranks of crime fiction's true immortals' --Daily Telegraph.

'There is comparison with that other great work of contemporary entertainment, The Wire, in the rage and clarity with which injustice becomes the driver of a novel way of looking at society. Be warned: the trilogy, like The Wire, is seriously addictive' --Guardian.

'Complex, satisfying, clever, moral ... a grown-up novel for grown-up readers ... this is why the Millennium Trilogy is rightly a publishing phenomenon all over the world' Kate Mosse. 'Fans will not be disappointed; this another roller-coaster ride that keeps you reading far too late into the night. Intricate but flawlessly plotted, it has complex characters as well as a satisfying, clear moral thrust ... most compelling is the character of Salander ... I cackled with glee as she turned the tables on her enemies in a climactic courtroom scene ... Who'd have thought a Swedish geek could set British pulses racing' Evening Standard. 'The pace rarely lets up ... it's an exhilarating read ... this is a strong and satisfying conclusion to a massively ambitious, richly textured trilogy' Daily Express. 'A cyclonic force of a story, I experienced the same happiness and feverish excitement with which I read Dumas's Three Musketeers or the novels of Dickens... exceptional... I repeat, without any shame whatsoever: fantastic' Mario Vargas Llosa in El Pais. 'A masterpiece of its genre' The Economist. 'He has managed to resurrect one of the great staples of 19th century fiction, the enigmatic heroine, and give her a new lease of life ... in the Millennium trilogy, Larsson has taken the Enigmatic Heroine, tattooed her, sexualized her, equipped her with huge amounts of arcane knowledge and sent her back out - literally booted and spurred - into the world.' Standpoint magazine. 'Without doubt, Larsson's are the most talked about crime novels of the year' Daily Mail. 'Really, really good ... relentlessly exciting writing ... Larsson deserves every scrap of his reputation as a master storyteller' Time Out. --Reviews.