I've finally finished Stieg Larsson's second Millennium instalment, The Girl Who Played With Fire. After reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I couldn't wait to get into the second book but time has been against me. I just couldn't get around to it and I didn't want to read it in 5 minute incriments.

So I took it up to the Gold Coast with me and spent my evenings reading big chunks at a time. Then last Friday night I finished the final 150+ pages.

I had it on good authority that this second book was better than the first and it's so true. Like the first book this one starts off kinda slow and builds up to the point where you can't get your eyes across the words and across the lines fast enough. Never mind a page turner, this book was a bloody runaway Mack truck and I was strapped in for a huge ride.

This book gives us much more background on our heroine Lisbeth Salander and she keeps being an oddly endearing and totally fascinating character. So good to have a fantastic, strong, take-no-prisoners female character.

The ending left me satisfied but certainly hanging for the next book (which won't be released until early 2010). I can only hope that the third book ties things up at least a bit and doesn't leave us in suspense like this one because sadly there won't be any more.

As Will would say Lisbeth Salander ROCKS!

I finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson on Saturday night. I bought it last Sunday when we were in Port Macquarie so it would be pretty close to a record. I just couldn't stop reading it.

On Saturday night Big Jay went to the Neil Young concert (yeah, he has a thing for mouldy old hippies, what can I say...) and I read the last 300 pages non-stop. I finished just before midnight and then couldn't get to sleep until after 3:00 am. Sheesh.

On the surface it's a bog standard mystery but there's something about it. Can't quite put my finger on it. I love the character of Lisbeth Salander and can't wait to catch up with her in the next book (which I plan to buy sometime this week; too bad we aparently need to wait a whole year for the third and final instalment to be translated).

I have to admit to struggling in the beginning. It was all those Swedish names; I felt I would have benefited from a whiteboard and some multicoloured markers to keep everyone in order. But once I got into the swing of things the story just took over.

Highly recommended if you're a mystery buff like me.