Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 10 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

Moving on to the second book of Steig Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, I’ve finished “The Girl Who Played with Fire.”

“Fire” picks up about a year after the events in “Dragon Tattoo” and we learn that hacker Lisbeth Salander has been traveling the world (anonymously of course) using her recently acquired wealth. Back in Sweden, Millenium editor/journalist Mikael Blomkvist has spent the past year dealing with the aftermath of the Wennerström affair and also searching for Salander who, for all practical purposes, has completely disappeared without explanation.

Lisbeth eventually returns to Sweden and learns that  Mikael is working on an exposé issue of the magazine that is going to blow the lid off of the underground sex trade, implicating several high-ranking police and state officials (she still keeps tabs on him via his hacked laptop). The evening before the issue is to be published, Blomkvist’s two collaborators and Lisbeth’s guardian are murdered. When Lisbeth’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon and at both crime scenes, a massive manhunt is launched to bring the fugitive hacker to justice.

Blomkvist can’t believe Salander was involved in the murders and begins his own inquiry. Soon the story is following Mikael, the police investigation, and the criminal underground as the search for Salander continues. Why did she kill three people (if she was indeed the killer). What is the link between Bjurman (Salander’s guardian) and the dead journalists? And who is the mysterious Zala?

Where “Tattoo” was mostly about Mikael Blomkvist, “Fire” is really about Lisbeth Salander and her troubled past. We learn more about what happened during Lisbeth’s childhood and how she ended up a ward of the social protection system. There’s an unexpected twist in the last quarter of the book but the end is a bit abrupt (I hope it picks up again in the third book).

I plan on starting the last book of the series while on our family vacation road trip to New England next week. Like with “Tattoo” I’ll also watch the Swedish movie version of “Fire” on Netflix when I get the chance.