If the reader is looking for
sympathetic characters and
retribution at the end, this book is not for them. However,
for those who enjoy a juicy thriller into which one can sink one's teeth, read on. Murder and intrigue involving a journalist, a brilliant and unsympathetic female protagonist, serious family dysfunction written in a "lean and mean" manner, the page turning can go well beyond the midnight oil's wick has burnt out. Set in Sweden, the character Lisbeth Salander returns and is the book's main focus. In comparing her to Cornwell's Lucy in the Scarpetta novels, we find the same self reliance, analytical and ultimately wounded personality. That is where the similarity ends. This girl is taking no hostages. The pace is fast, the plot unfurls into a web of deceit and human trafficking involving the complex nature of survival of the fittest.