2017; 446 pages. New Author? : No. Book 5 (out of 5) in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium
series, aka the Lisbeth
Salander series. Translator:
George Goulding (Swedish
to English). Genre : Thriller;
Police Procedural; Swedish Crime Noir.
Overall Rating : 7*/10.
Lisbeth
Salander is trouble. Everybody knows
that, including her closest acquaintances (it’s doubtful that Lisbeth would call anyone a “friend”),
the reporter Mikael Blomkvist, her former guardian Holger Palmgren, and
Stockholm Police Chief Inspector Jan Bublanski.
But
for now, Lisbeth is serving a 2-month sentence at the notorious maximum
security prison in Flodberga. Blomkvist
and Palmgren occasionally visit her, but she’s not much of a talker. She is not allowed access to computers, cell
phones, or any other communications media, so she’s cut off from her hacker
colleagues. Simply put, there’s not much
trouble she can get into, is there?
Well,
if you believe that, you don’t know Lisbeth Salander very well. But perhaps you’ve heard of her nickname: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
What’s To Like...
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye is the fifth,
and latest book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, and the second one penned
by David Lagercrantz due to Larsson’s passing away. I’ve read the whole series; Lagercrantz’s
other contribution, The Girl In the Spider’s Web, did the series justice, and is reviewed here.
There are two main storylines: a.) the plight of Lisbeth’s
fellow-inmate, Faria Kazi, and b.) a clandestine psychiatric study run years
ago on identical twins, which some people seem to be taking great pains to keep hidden. Lisbeth looks
into the first one; Blomkvist and Bublanski deal with the second. I liked the way Lagercrantz handles the
classic “twin” literary trope. The book
jumps back and forth between the two plotlines, and I thought that worked
rather well. The story is set entirely
in Sweden, and takes place over a mere 2½ weeks.
There
is a “List of Continuing Characters” at the front of the book, which I found to
be both a handy reference and a useful refresher of the backstory. There’s also a slew of new characters to meet
and greet. The book is a translation
from the original Swedish, and was well done.
Just keep in mind, it’s been translated into English, not American. Like all the books in the series, there is
some sex and lots of cussing and violence.
I
liked the abundance of trivia, including the mini-biography of Django
Reinhardt, which motivated me to read more about him on Wikipedia and listen to
his masterful guitar-playing on YouTube. There were also nods to the jazz musicians
Pat Metheny and Stephane Grappelli, both of which I’m familiar with, and to the
Scottish crime writer Peter May, who I’d never heard of.
The ending was so-so. As usual,
it tied up both main storylines nicely; and it also was a relatively happy
finish, which was unusual for this series, but a pleasant surprise. OTOH, it felt a bit rushed and didn’t seem to
be particularly twisty. Still, it got
the job done.
Excerpts...
“Did that
psychologist write anything about exceptionally sensitive hearing?”
“I haven’t gotten
hold of his thesis yet,” Blomkvist said.
But he did write somewhere that an evolutionary asset during one
particular era can become a liability during another. In a forest in the age of hunting and
gathering, someone with good hearing would be the most alert and therefore the
most likely to find food. In a major
city full of noise, that same person would risk confusion and overload. More recipient than participant.”
“Is that what he
wrote: more recipient than participant?”
“As far as I
remember.”
“How sad.” (pg. 137)
He learned about
some extraordinary cases of identical twins who had grown up in different
families and only met as adults, but were strikingly similar, not just in
appearance but also in behaviour. In the
U.S., there were the so-called Jim Twins of Ohio: unaware of each other’s
existence, yet both became chain-smokers of Salem cigarettes, bit their
fingernails, suffered from bad headaches, had carpentry work-benches in their
garage, named their dogs Toy, got married twice to women with the same name, had
sons they christened James Allan and James Alan, and God knows what else. (pg. 246)
Life always looks its best from a distance. pg. 290)
A
number of reviewers, both professionals (see Wikipedia) and at Amazon, were a tad bit disappointed in The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an
Eye, and so was I. The plotlines
were predictable and frankly, not very exciting. That also held true for the evildoers. On one side, you have a formidable team of
Lisbeth and Blomkvist. Opposing them are
a small-time hoodlum and several geezer shrinks. I almost wanted Lisbeth and Mikael to have to
wear blindfolds to even things out.
I’m
also tired of the running into the literary tropes of Arab extremists and
Islamophobia. Is it too much to ask for
something a bit less overused? How about
Baha’i extremists and kittens-phobia. To
be fair though, the Imam here was non-stereotypical, which was refreshing to
see.
In
the end though, what hurts TGWTaEfaE most is
the time-sharing of the two protagonists.
To be blunt, there’s too much Mikael Blomkvist and not enough Lisbeth
Salander. The latter is why everyone
reads this series; the more she's involved in the storyline, the better the reception of the book.
Still,
these issues are mostly personal tastes on my part, and your literary peeves
may be different from mine. I suppose it’s inevitable that sooner or later a book in
this series will disappoint some of us diehard readers. OTOH, if you'r new to this series and are contemplating making this one your first read, by all means proceed. You’re likely to find this to be an
exciting tale, and when you pick up the other books in the series, you'll be even more thrilled
when reading them.
7 Stars. Book 6 in this series, The Girl Who Lived Twice, is due to be published
on August 17, 2019. David Lagercrantz is
once again the author. I have no doubt
that I will end up reading it.
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