Creator: Stieg Larsson
Translator: George Goulding
First Published: September 1, 2015
Series: Millennium #4
400 pages (hardcover)
I was kind of avoiding this book at first because it's not really by Stieg Larsson (who has passed away, sadly). I know this book was written based off of Larsson's extensive notes for future books in the series, so it's sort of by him, but not really. I don't know. Then one day, I saw it in the bookstore. I just decided, whatever. I'm going to read it anyway.
So in this fourth book, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are baaaack. Sort of. Not together though. For like 99% of the book, they don't actually meet up, but they are in contact with one another.
Blomkvist gets a phone call one night from Frans Balder, a man who claims to have very important, scandalous information regarding a recent hacking job done to the American NSA organization. What makes Blomkvist interested is that the mysterious hacker sounds an awful lot like his old pal Lisbeth. But just as Blomkvist arrives at Balder's house, Balder is brutally murdered. The only witness is Balder's young son August, who was spared because he's autistic and mute. The murderer figures such a child is not going to be able to be a witness for the police anyway, and as the murderer does not really want to kill a child, he leaves him be.
Unbeknownst to the murderer, August is a savant. He has incredible photographic memory and is able to draw perfect, masterful drawings of scenes he has seen. Somehow, this information gets back around to the murderer, who is now understandably regretful that he let August live, as the police are now trying to get August to draw the murderer. It's up to Blomkvist and Lisbeth to step in and protect August, while at the same time figure out what it is that Balder wanted to expose about the NSA.
This book wasn't bad at all. I think this author tried very hard to mimic Stieg Larsson's writing and storytelling style, and in my opinion, he did a pretty good job. I didn't feel like any of the characters were "off" from the original or anything. Blomkvist felt like Blomkvist; Lisbeth was as badass as ever.
With the above said, this fourth book wasn't as great as the first three. I can't really pinpoint why. I mean, the story was interesting and since it was written based off of Stieg Larsson's notes, this story certainly felt like it belonged in the Millennium world. But I don't know if it's the fact that I know it's not written by Larsson or what (which I know is very unfair to this author). It just didn't captivate me in the same way the first three books did.
Maybe it's because Lisbeth seemed like a ... minor character in this book. I mean, it says right on the cover, A LISBETH SALANDER NOVEL. And yet, she's actually more a side character. Maybe that's why I didn't feel like this book lived up to the first three.
Anyway, it was a decent novel over all. It didn't have the power oomph that the first three did, but I liked it.
My Rating:
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