The Girl Who Played With Fire

It starts out very slow. It serves mainly to build up characters and to provide references to events that took place in a previous book. Finally about a third of the way through the book, the adventure stops.

The story involves a murdered journalist and criminologist. (In a bit of irony, the journalist has the draft of a potential best seller that is ready to be published after his death. Did Larsson anticipate his book would not be published until after his death?)

It gets moving along well after the long exposition. The author does a masterful job of introducing details as they are needed in order to maintain interest. Everyone seems to be connected, both in ways we expect, and ways that seem to come totally out of the blue.

The book ends with a typical "second book" ending, resolving some issues, but leaving plenty more hanging in wait for the next book.