The Girl who Takes an Eye for an Eye

The Girl who Takes an Eye for an Eye

Author: David Lagercrantz

Original creator of the Lisbeth Salander character: Stieg Larssen

Yep. Lisbeth Salander is back. And as always, our girl with the dragon tattoo is enragingly non-communicative, painfully vulnerable, maths-smart to the point of genius and completely misunderstood. What more could you ask for in a page-turner’s heroine?

Henry’s readers will probably know that this is the fifth book of the Millennium series; the first three written by Stieg Larssen, and the fourth and this fifth The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye written by David Lagercrantz. Lagercrantz ‒ Lisbeth’s present ‘custodian’ due to the death of Larssen ‒ though a better writer than Larssen does not inspire the compulsive page-turning of the original trilogy. The anarchic plot-twists of Larssen’s original novels are missing but don’t worry, you still won’t be able to put this novel down.

Lagercrantz’s reprises all Larssen’s signature touches: sadistic, scum-bag baddies ‒ this time one particular eugenicist who couldn’t prove more evil if she goose stepped; extraordinary genetic profiles (remember Salander’s blonde mountain half-brother who had a condition that resulted in his inability to feel pain? Well, you won’t be disappointed with this edition’s various savants and human oddities); institutions that are rotting at the core; and, of course, the cliché riddled Blomkvist.

If Lisbeth Salander is your poison you are in for a treat.

And back to Henry here.