The Girl Who Played with Fire(Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) is the second novel in the best-selling "Millennium series" by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009.

The book features many of the characters that appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among them the title character,Lisbeth Salander, a brilliantcomputer hacker and social misfit, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine.

Widely seen as a critical success, The Girl Who Played with Fire was also (according toThe Bookseller magazine) the first and only translated novel to be number one in the UK hardback chart.^[1]

[edit]Synopsis

Mikael Blomkvist, the publisher of Millennium magazine, is approached by Dag Svensson, a young journalist who has written a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and the abuse of underage girls by high-ranking figures. Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation, planning to run Svensson's story in an upcoming issue of Millennium. However, shortly before the printing of the story, Svensson and his partner are shot dead in their Stockholmapartment.

Lisbeth Salander becomes the prime suspect in Svensson's murder when the police discover incriminating evidence at the crime scene. The next day, Salander's guardian, Nils Bjurman, is found dead in his bedroom, shot with the same weapon. Lisbeth discovers a connection between Bjurman and a man named Zala, and breaks into Bjurman's home to read his files on her. She realizes that none of the police reports state the reason for her institutionalization when she was thirteen. She tells Blomvkist that she is innocent and gives him information on the case.

Blomkvist tries to clear Lisbeth's name, but is unable to find her. Lisbeth has moved out of her old apartment -- given to her friend and sometime-lover, Mimmi -- and into a secret apartment so that no one could locate her. Niedermann, a looming henchman working for Zala, shows up at the old apartment and abducts Mimmi in an attempt to force Lisbeth out of hiding. Niederman takes Mimmi to a secret warehouse that serves as his lair, but Mimmi escapes and is taken to the hospital.

We find out later that Zala is Lisbeth's father, and she had tried to kill him when she was 13 with fire because he abused her mother so badly she was put in a mental hospital. Lisbeth locates Zala and shows up at his home to kill him, but Niedermann is there and she is told he is her half-brother. Zala shoots Lisbeth in the hip, shoulder and head with a Browning .22, which is a very weak gun that doesn't kill her. Niedermann buries her alive, but she digs herself out and again attempts to kill Zala with an axe. Blomvkist, who had done extensive research, along with Lisbeth's computer hacking skills, arrives in time to attend to Lisbeth and call 911. It's revealed the Niedermann was the killer of Bjurman, Svensson and Svensson's partner, and a search is put out for him since he fled the scene once Lisbeth tried to murder Zala with the axe.

[edit]Characters

[edit]Main Characters

• Mikael Blomkvist  – A journalist and publisher at Millennium magazine.
• Lisbeth Salander  – An antisocial private investigator, hacker, and accused triple-murderer.
• Alexander Zalachenko (Zala) a.k.a. Karl Axel Bodin  – A former Soviet spy who turns out to be deeply involved in Salander's dark past.
• Ronald Niedermann a.k.a. The Giant  – Zalachenko's henchman who is connected to Salander in way which she herself does not realize.
• Carl-Magnus Lundin  – The President of Svavelsjö Motorcycle Club (Svavelsjö MC). Sells drugs and is commissioned to kidnap Salander for Zala.

[edit]Related to Millennium Magazine

• Erika Berger  – Editor in chief of Millennium magazine and Blomkvist's on-off lover.
• Harriet Vanger  – Majority investor.
• Malin Eriksson  – Managing editor of Millennium magazine.
• Christer Malm  – Art director and designer of Millennium magazine.
• Dag Svensson  – A journalist who is writing an exposé on the Swedish sex trade.
• Mia Johansson  – Dag's girlfriend and doctoral student.
• Henry Cortez  – Part-time journalist at Millennium magazine.
• Lotta Karim  – Part-time journalist at Millennium
• Monika Nillson  – Journalist at Millennium magazine.

[edit]Related to Milton Security

• Dragan Armansky  – Salander's former boss and director of Milton Security.
• Sonny Bohman  – A former policeman and part of the team Armansky assigns to support the police investigation.
• Johan Fräklund  – Chief of Operations at Milton Security and assigned to support police investigation.
• Niklas Hedström  – Works for Milton Security and is assigned to support police investigation but sabotages it. A heart problem kept him from becoming a police man. He hates Salander since she caught him blackmailing a client.

[edit]Related to Police Investigation

• Jan Bublanski  – A police officer who is in charge of Salander's case, nicknamed Officier Bubble.
• Sonja Modig  – A detective in Bublanski's team.
• Richard Ekström  – A prosecutor of Salander's case.
• Hans Faste  – Working in Bublanski's team, causing trouble with his sexually discriminating attitude.
• Curt Andersson  – Police officer in Bublanski's team.
• Jerker Holmberg  – Police officer in Bublanski's team.

[edit]Other Characters

• Annika Gianinni  – Blomkvist's sister and an attorney.
• Miriam "Mimmi" Wu  – A kickboxer, university student and Salander's sometime lover.
• Nils Bjurman  – An attorney and Salander's current guardian since Palmgren's stroke.
• Paolo Roberto  – A former professional boxer and Salander's boxing instructor.
• Gunnar Björck  – A Swedish Security Police officer and former punter abusing women. He is also the lead source for Blomkvist on Zalachenko.
• Holger Palmgren  – Lisbeth Salander's former guardian; she visits him in a rehabilitation home and they play a game of chess together. In her memoir "There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me, Eva Gabrielsson tells readers that this chess game was inspired by her brother Björn who Stieg Larsson used to play the game with and with whom he was very close. ^[2]
• Greger Beckman  – Erika Berger's husband
• George Bland  – Teenage boy whom Salander has an affair with inGrenada.
• Richard Forbes  – Reverend and Salander's hotel room neighbour in Grenada.
• Geraldine Forbes  – Battered wife of Richard Forbes.
• Sonny Nieminen  – Part of Svavelsjö MC and involved in trying to kidnap Salander.

[edit]Reception

The English version was published in January 2009 and immediately became a number 1 bestseller.^[1] It received reviews from most of the major UK newspapers. Many reviewers agreed with Joan Smith at the Sunday Times that this novel was “even more gripping and astonishing than the first”. Carla McKay at the Daily Mail said that, like its predecessor, the book is "not just a thrilling read, but tackles head-on the kind of issues that Larsson himself railed against in society".^[3]

Most of the reviewers concentrated mainly on the character of Lisbeth Salander, with Mark Lawson at the Guardian saying that "the huge pleasure of these books is Salander, a fascinating creation with a complete and complex psychology".^[4] Boyd Tonkin in The Independent saying that "the spiky and sassy Lisbeth Salander – punkish wild child, traumatised survivor of the 'care' system, sexual adventurer and computer hacker of genius" was "the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years".^[5]

[edit]Cultural notes

The character of Paolo Roberto is an actual person. He is a former boxer and television chef who has also dabbled in politics. He played himself in the film based on the book.^[6][7]

In the first part of the book, Salander is exploring Dimensions in Mathematics apparently written by L. C. Parnault and published by Harvard University Press in 1999. On February 9, 2009, Harvard University Press announced on their website that this book, as well as the author, is purely fictitious.^[8]

The mysterious Karl Axel Bodin, in whose house Salander finds Zalachenko and Niedermann, is a historical name. Bodin was born inKarlstad and later moved to Sundsvall. He went to Norway to join theWaffen-SS; at the end of World War II, he was attached to the country's branch of the Gestapo. At the war's end, Bodin and another Swedish volunteer stole a car in an attempted escape to Sweden. The car's owner saw the theft, and soon a gunfight erupted in which the car owner and Bodin's friend were shot. Bodin left his friend behind and crossed the border.^[9]