The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Rating: 4/5 stars

Oh Stieg, how will I ever survive without you?  Just finished the last installment of the Millennium series and am sad that Stieg had to die so young and without finishing his series.  (I believe there were supposed to be a total of 10 books).  How will I survive without Lisbeth, one of my favorite characters in modern literature?  Where will I find comfort reading about cheese sandwiches and endless pots of coffee?  Who else will fight for justice in Sweden if Mikael Blomkvist is no longer?

Despite my sadness, the third book in this series was great (I personally loved #1 and #3 and am the odd ball for not liking #2 as much as others....as mentioned in previous review, has to do with my protectiveness over Lisbeth.)  It gets to the heart a corrupt sector of a federal police organization in Sweden and we learn how and why Lisbeth was been so mistreated.  But will she get justice after having been wronged?  What will happen with her and Mikael?  Mikael and Erica? (Erica leaves Millennium for a bigger press and gains a stalker in this novel.)  What about Lisbeth's brother (the giant Niedermann who can feel no pain.)?

Great literature doesn't always provide the answers.  In fact, the best books make us develop our own conclusions, and Larsson's untimely death forces this upon us as well.  The Millennium series introduced Americans (and the world) to Swedish literature, Swedish politics and a great suspense writer.  It has made its mark in literary history, and the world lost a special author when Larsson passed at the young age of 50.  Let's hope that the American movie series lives up to the books.  Lisbeth Salander, I will miss you.