The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

This is the final installment of the phenomenally successful Millenium Trilogy. And I am really going to miss the main characters, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Anyone who loves intricate plots, intrigue, suspense with well developed characters, will love these three books. You not only get to know these two characters, but you also come to really care about them.

It is such a tragic story of the author, Stieg Larsson, who died about a month after delivering the manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher. He died tragically from a heart attack at the age of 50. He did not live to see what a phenomenon his first novels have become.

Larsson was an investigative journalist and an activist who worked to counter the actions of right-wing radical groups in Sweden. In fact I believe Larsson patterned his main male protaganist, Mikael Blomkvist, after his own life as an investigative journalist.

As I said about the first two novels, the same holds true with this last novel. You will not want to miss this last installment. And like so many of us, you will mourn the fact that there may never be a fourth novel with Blomkvist and Salander. According to news reports, Larsson was nearing completion to a fourth novel in the series, before he died suddenly. His family claims that it will never be published.

All of us Millenium fans can still enjoy the Swedish made films of the three novels. The first two are out on DVD and the third novel, Hornet's Nest, is in theaters now. We also have the American film versions to look forward to in 2011.

I have purchased copies of all three novels for the RHS Library. They hopefully will be here by Thanksgiving.