The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. ✔✔✔

I read the first two of this series eagerly: I think Lisbeth Salander is one of the strongest female characters in any novel of this genre, and I cheered her on through all her adventures. I guess that's the main reason I was somewhat disappointed in this third novel, for Lisbeth spends most of the novel in a hospital bed while other, less colorful characters come to the fore. I wanted her to get up out of that bed and bring the book to life, or at least provide enough action to get me more involved with the story.

Now here's the other reasons I was disappointed by this third book:

1. There's too much information! I don't want a four or five page history lesson on the Swedish Internal Security System, nor do I need a three page description of the alarm system put into Erika Berger's bedroom! Was this novel written by a man or what????

2. A lot of the characters' names were quite similar, and there certainly was a big cast of characters in this book. For example, which one is that crazy guy who feels no pain - Nieminen or Niederman? And all those E's... Erlander, Ekstrom, Edklinth- it was hard enough keeping straight who was police, who was security, who was journalist, let alone keep the names straight. I even kept some sticky notes in the front cover with some identifying feature to help me out!

3. I was taken aback often by changes in writing style and I wondered if someone had done some editing. There'd be some real flow to the writing, then suddenly there were lots of very short, almost stilted sentences, obviously to insert some more information. And why did the women's wardrobe choices seem important to mention? And why did it have to be mentioned that Blomkvist had to buy toiletries before he left on a sudden flight out of Sweden?

4.Apparently, according to reviews and such that I read - Larsson was very much involved with women's issues and women's rights. Good for him. So why does he have a stalker following Erika, who, incidentally, has an on-going affair with Blomkvist with her husband's knowledge and approval? Local colour, maybe?

Anyway, I happily read well over 200 pages of this book before I got bogged down - and that was after I made the sticky notes. I skimmed some 200 more until I just turned over to the end and read the last two pages. It's over!! Yippee!!

I'll watch the movie to see what I missed...