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In the final installment of Larsson's Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander brings to justice the evil men who have committed a variety of crimes against her. Her father, Alexander Zalachenko, beat her mother until he caused permanent brain damage. When Lisbeth fought back, she was placed in a mental institution (THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE). A rogue branch of Sapo, Sweden's counterpart to the CIA, covered up Zalachenko's many crimes--murder and trafficking in prostitution, among others--and tried to silence Salander, one way or another. An immoral psychiatrist colluded with Sapo. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST picks up where THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE left off. Salander is recovering from a gunshot to her head, though she seems to have no post-traumatic stress disorder from having been buried alive after being shot twice. Her father lies down the hall in the same intensive-care ward recovering from Salander's axe blows to his face and leg. Apparently, Swedish hospitals do not place police guards even on the most dangerous of criminals. Because Salander is laid up for the first half of the novel, much of her presence involves her sending secret e-mails and hacking computers from her hospital bed, all from pecking a stylus on an early version of a Palm Pilot. Now that's fortitude. Meanwhile, her friends on the outside, especially the crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and his lawyer sister, Annika Giannini, launch a complicated defense for Salander, who has been charged with several counts of attempted murder. More transparent are the efforts of Sapo to discredit Salander permanently. The opposing forces collide when Salander is brought to trial. The denouement is a brilliant page-turner. Each section of the novel begins with long epigraphs about Amazonian women, and such figures abound in the novel. The most physically imposing woman is Monica, a Sapo officer and Blomkvist's newest love interest. Annika and Erica are mental athletes, and Lisbeth combines both physical and mental powers. They are more Furies than Amazons: They are avenging forces who know what is right but who break the rules anyway. The dichotomy between the genders is made clear toward the end of the novel when we are informed that the story is about the evil that men perpetrate on women. But this analysis is rather simplistic in the face of the details presented in the novel. The physical assaults by the psychiatrist and Lisbeth's first guardian, for instance, are aggression against powerless children and young adults, whether they are girls or boys. The major drawback of this novel is the unnecessary length and a lack of a strong and necessary editorial hand. Larsson can't resist giving page after page of back story about new characters, in lengthy sections that are page skippers rather than page turners. The lengthy "biography" of Gulberg, head of a secret section of Sapo, is particularly boring and unnecessary. The epilogue turns out to be one additional denouement. Perhaps because of Larsson's sudden demise in 2004, editors are loathe to cut the master's words, though they would improve the trilogy by doing so. Still, like many other readers, I was sorry to see the entertaining series come to a close. The best parts are riveting, and Larsson's astute dissection of Swedish intelligence agencies and of gender trouble in a supposedly "advanced" country added depth to this thriller. Salander and Blomkvist have become heroes for many. The audio version is narrated by Simon Vance, one of the most prolific, best-known and justly praised audio performers. He thoughtfully appraises characters and endows each with an individual voice. If one has listened to this entire series, then Vance has become Salander and Blomkvist, as well as the others. It seems the narrator's job is done for the moment, but Larsson left behind an unfinished manuscript that is sure to appear in print and audio. Stay tuned. § Karla Jay is a legally blind audio book addict, who lives in New York City, where she is Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at Pace University.
Reviewed by Karla Jay, June 2010
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