The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Rather longer than the previous novels (at nearly 750 pages in my edition), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest finishes off Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. I don't want to give spoilers for The Girl Who Played with Fire, but I will say that we begin this novel with Salander stuck in a hospital bed and awaiting trial for murder.

Of necessity the majority of the action is done by the other characters in this novel, although Salander proves exceptionally resourceful even from a secure hospital room. Blomkvist races to uncover the truth about Salander and her father, while an underground Swedish secret services cell desperately tries to get her committed once again in order to cover up her father's past crimes.

Once again Larsson's style is clear, direct and gripping. Action and subterfuge merge as we follow the manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres of the opposing sides, and the emotional and moral ambiguities add a refreshing sense of realism. There is no theatricality about the “bad guys'” point of view sections, only a feeling of people with a different sense of loyalty and priorities. Again the only negative I have, especially having read the trilogy spaced out over several years, is that I found the extensive network of minor characters and their relationships and pasts difficult to recall at times.

The frantic action leads up to the culmination of the trilogy, Salander's trial to try to prove her sanity and innocence once and for all. All the strands carefully woven through the series are pulled together to form a very satisfying legal and personal conflict between Salander and her nemesis Teleborian, who was responsible for her original committal in a psychiatric unit as a child.

This was a gripping, addictive novel – I can't tell you the amount of times I meant to stop reading and just had to read one more chapter. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is a fast-paced story full of big personalities and complex intertwined schemes, coming together to form a tense and dramatic climax.

Next up: Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie

The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

I don’t normally go for novels written about the present-day, but Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy really is outstanding.

Even in translation, Larsson’s writing is clear, concise and driven. Intriguing hints and new twists combine deftly with touching moments and action-packed scenes, making it one of those books where ‘just one more page’ becomes another hour. The only criticism I have is that the writing style stays exactly the same even when we switch point of view characters, but each character still stands out as an individual, and it’s quite possible that some subtle differences were lost in translation.

In this, the second novel of the trilogy, the focus moves closer to home – to Stockholm, where both Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander live. When Salander becomes the suspect in the investigation of a multiple murder, the police and the press begin to dig into her private life and her past, and we, the reader, discover some of what happened to make her the unique and contradictory heroine she is.

The combination of bleak isolation and desperate empowerment contained within this novel is very compelling, and makes the trilogy utterly memorable and definitely well worth reading.


Next up: The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn

The Diary of a Provincial Lady - E M Delafield

If Bridget Jones had been a 1920s housewife, this would be her. The fictional diaries of the unnamed Provincial Lady document the daily life of the well-intentioned, self-conscious and scathingly sarcastic narrator. We are shown her family life in a small village in Devon, and in the sequels follow her on a tour of America and to London during WWII.

While not very much “happens”, as such, the wonderful turns of phrase and the diarist’s acerbic observations on human nature had me sniggering rather loudly in the canteen at work. My boyfriend picked it up at one point, glanced down the page and asked me when it was written. When I told him the 1930s, he said that he hadn’t realised people were so sarcastic in those days.

The Diary of a Provincial Lady defies the common preconception that older books tend to be quite polite and sedate, and instead looks with a keen sense of the ridiculous at peoples’ everyday habits and tendencies. A cleverly written series of books that have the feel of sitting down for a cup of tea and a gossip with an old friend - perfect for curling up with at the end of a long day.

Next up: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

A little accidental book shopping

On my way to do a sensible food, washing up liquid etc. shop this afternoon I gave into temptation and went into the two (two! next door to each other) charity shops that I have to pass to get into town. The result is as follows:

The Heart of a Hospital, by Anne Vinton. A vintage Mills & Boon - looks hilarious.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
As Meat Loves Salt, by Maria McCann.
The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, by Stieg Larsson. I read the first novel last year, and have been meaning to get hold of these for a while. I only ever came across the third novel until today.

Now to try and find space to fit these into my extended literary family...