As an activist and the editor-in-chief of his own anti-fascist magazine, Expo, Stieg Larsson waged a constant campaign against those who threatened the liberties of his native Sweden, often putting his own life at risk. This, however, was not enough, and in the summer of 2001 Larsson casually told friends he was going to start writing a series of crime novels, and began writing them every evening for recreation, often working on two or three different novels at a time. Larsson died of a heart attack at age 50 before the manuscripts were sent to a publisher. Now, what was originally just a bit of fun for Sweden’s top expert on neo-Nazis has become a cultural phenomenon.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest ($32, Viking Canada) is the final book in Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and I must confess that when I was assigned this review I had not read the two previous entries, skeptical as I was of Larsson’s abilities as a crime writer. My skepticism was unfounded: Hornet’s Nest is an excellent book, and a fitting conclusion (for now) to the crime-fighting adventures of middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker Lisbeth Salander that began in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book, ended with Salander burying an axe in the face of her ex-KGB father, Alexander Zalachenko, after surviving being buried alive by her half-brother, Ronald Niedermann, for discovering her father’s criminal dealings. However, before the nearly fatal axe blow, Zalachenko shot Salander in the head with a .22 caliber pistol. At the start of Hornet’s Nest, both Salander and her father are hospitalized in critical condition, two suites away from each other. Salander’s friend, the journalist Mikael Blomkvist from Millennium magazine, is being interrogated by Swedish police about these dramatic events. What happens from there is the investigation of the conspiracy that led to Salander’s physical and psychological abuse from Swedish authorities by Blomkvist, and a trial that will determine Salander’s fate.
Hornet’s Nest is an addictive read and you’ll find yourself eagerly devouring each of the book’s 563 pages. Larsson writes in a clear, crisp style, keeping descriptions spare and favouring plot and character development over symbolism and imagery. His prose is also rich with dry humour: when Niedermann, Salander’s psychopathic brother, reads an article about himself in Millennium, Larsson writes: “A journalist named Blomkvist had described Niedermann as a pathological murderer and a psychopath. He frowned.” I couldn’t stop laughing after I read this sentence.
Hornet’s Nest has a large cast of strong female characters, including Lisbeth Salander; Erika Berger, editor-in-chief of Millennium magazine; Monica Figuerola, an officer with Sweden’s Constitutional Protection Unit; and Annika Giannini, Salander’s lawyer, and Blomkvist’s sister. A subplot involves Erika Berger moving on to become editor-in-chief of a Swedish daily, Svenska Morgen-Posten, and is one of the novel’s most thrilling parts.
What’s amazing about the book is that Larsson somehow manages to marry the pulp sensibilities of the crime novel with his own political views. Politics is nothing new to the crime genre, but Larsson’s particular accent on women’s rights is an interesting twist. He neatly sums up the trilogy when he has Blomkvist say, “When it comes down to it, this story is not primarily about spies and secret government agencies; it’s about violence against women, and the men who enable it.” Larsson effectively makes the reader interrogate and question of the treatment of women in Western society, all while delivering a thrilling mystery story.
All that’s left for me to do is now is to read the first and second book in the series, and hope that rumours about a fourth book are actually true.
