Books | 015 | The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest | Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest is the third book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. After ending the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, with Lisbeth Salander being shot in the head this final book in the series picks up with her undergoing an emergency operation to try and save her life. There's absolutely no let up in pace, though the focus initially switches from Salander being the centre of attention to Blomkvist, the Millennium magazine owner, and others, investigating a secret security unit of the Swedish government.
What Larsson has done with these three books is similar in ways to the TV series The Wire: take a seeming small story of a disappeared girl, in the first book, and broaden things out over three books to encompass national issues: the role of the media, government ineptitude/corruption, collective social responsibility, corporate malfeasance, greed, and, of course, the abuse of power in pursuit of preserving it. Larsson, through Salander & Blomkvist, slowly peels back the thin veneer of lies and deception to expose the endemic rot of abuse - sexual, political, and corporate. Given his own background in journalism and his political activism there is an undercurrent of authenticity running throughout the books, and while the books are all exciting thrillers in their own right it is the accurate small details about running a news magazine while under pressure that grounds them.
As far as the final published book goes - Larsson had planned a series of ten, before his untimely death at 50 - it closes out the events from the first three books well. Salander faces down her enemies, the court case to have her re-institutionalised is great fun, with both brains and violence - as is her way. Blomkvist jumps into bed with women almost as much as he jumps into trouble with the authorities, while his colleagues undercover even more corruption. The cops fumble at first but eventually get to grips with how deep things go in terms of national security. And the bad guys are in a race against time to cover their tracks and limit their exposure.
There are a vast number of characters and threads to the story, but you never feel lost as to what's happening because the pacing makes sure all the twists and turns are kept fresh and relevant. Sure, a lot of the lesser characters are broad-stroke good or bad guys, but that's a necessity that helps drive the pacing of a thriller which spans three large books and covers so many tightly plotted angles.
At the end of it all there are a few loose ends, minor ones, but surely that must happen if an author had planned so far in advance. As it is, all three books are brought to a satisfying conclusion and leave you wanting more. And, in a way, that might happen as Yellowbird, the Scandinavian production outfit, is producing 3 movies based on the books. I hope they release english sub-titled versions before Hollywood gets its hands on things and ruins it all with 'faces', a dumbed down plot, crap explosions and cheesy one-liners. Ugh!
