Book Review: "The Girl In The Spider's Web"

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB

The Travelling Toe is a charter member of the Good Reads Book Club.  Each month a member recommends a book for the group to read and then presents a review of the book along with other information pertaining to the story line or the author.  After the review, the members have a discussion about the book and what they liked or didn't like. It is always an interesting and informative discussion.

For the month of March, it was moi's time and the book selected was "The Girl In The Spider's Web".  It is the 4th book in the Millennium series. The first book "The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo" was published in 2008 and t was a runaway best seller.  A movie was made of it in both Swedish and English. The second book was "The Girl Who Played With Fire" that came out in 2009.  And the third one, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest" arrived in the US in 2010.

STIEG LARSSON

Stieg Larsson, was the original author of the first 3 books. But tragically he died before the books were published or realized the astounding success that they would achieve world wide.  As you might remember there was a fight over his estate between his long-time girl friend and his father and brother.  

Larsson was a journalist and was active in documenting and exposing the Swedish extreme right and racist organisations.  He died at the age of 50. and that is when the 3 unpublished books as several unfinished manuscripts were found.  

David Lagercrantz, a noted Swedish journalist himself, was approached by the publishing company to write a fourth book with the same major characters, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.  

DAVID LAGERCRANTZ

In an interview with Costco Connection magazine, Mr. Lagercrantz was asked how he prepared himself for writing this book.  He replied that he immersed himself in the Stieg Larsson universe.by reading the books numerous times and taking notes on the characters and their various story lines.

The Amazon website describes the plot of "The Girl In The Spider's Web" as follows:

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo—a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.

Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it . . . 

The duo who captivated millions of readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest join forces again in this adrenaline-charged, uniquely of-the-moment thriller. 

SIDE NOTE:  One important piece of handy information we learned from Lisbeth in this book, is that if you are ever in a gun battle and get wounded and are out of bandages, then just use some good old reliable duct tape to wrap up your wounds.  (Red Green would be so proud!)

Members of the book club did like this book as it had an interesting story line and was not quite as violent as the first 3 books.  David did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the 2 main characters.  He also used the same writing style as Stieg, with one chapter describing the action taking place for one person on a particular day and the next chapter being the same time frame but from a different character's perspective.


The publishing firm has contracted with David to write 2 more books in the series.  So additional Swedish adventures will be forthcoming!