Barbara's Booky Blog

I absolutely loved this series and an beyond sad that it is over. Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqvist are amazing characters. Though most of their actions are implausible as hell, still entertaining and great fun to read about. Though I liked Erika Berger in the first two novels, she and her situation with SMP had absolutely nothing to do with the story line in this installment. It seemed like filler but with a book of this size, who the hell needs filler. It should definitely have been completely edited out. I also thought the in depth information on the Swedish government and Sapo were unnecessary to the plot. Simply mentioning that a secret section of the government without oversight (think black ops) was in charge of the Zalachenko affair would have been sufficient to explain the situation and easily cut 100 pages from this novel.

There were several factions for and against Salander doing this and that to prove or disprove her guilt or innocence. I loved the way everything came together at the end. Of course, you knew up front that Mikael's plan would be successful but I was dying to know exactly how they were going to strike and I loved Giannini's attack on Teleborian. These pricks had it coming to them and I laughed out loud at their shock when naive Giannini pulled out the big guns and kicked their asses.

I can understand the negative reviews I've seen since Salander didn't really shine in this installment as she did in the previous two. But I must say that the supporting characters, Mikael, Holger Palmgren and Dragan Armansky really came through for Salander. She may be a socially inept genius but her friends are rather loyal and had her back. I hear there might be a fourth book and I would certainly not be upset about that. Maybe we'll finally get some information on Camilla though I'm sure she'll be gunning for Salander.