The Girl Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson

This is the sequel to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" where Lizbeth travels the world on the money she stole from Wennerstorm. At first the book seems sort of disjointed, the prologue has her throwing gas on a man and setting him on fire. We then see her traveling the world and getting a breast implant which increases her confidence. She spend some time in Grenada where she starts liking a 16 yr old boy and becomes slightly obsessed with mathematical theories. A hurricane hits the island and Salander happens to notice a rich American trying to use the storm as a cover for murdering his wife for insurance money. Salander saves the woman and watches him get swept up by the storm. It seems the whole beginning of the book was meant to show that Salander is just and can be violent, but is not a murderer. When she returns home she buys an extremely expensive condo under a false name and trys to remain untraceable. She wants to keep her other apartment since it links her to her recently deceased mother and has a girlfriend (Mimi) move in rent-free. Salandar realizes she hasn't been a good friend, just leaving the people she cares about and not telling them where she is going, so she drops in on Armansky, from Milton Securities, and learns Holger Palmgren, her former guardian who had a stroke, is still alive. She rushes to him and pays for the best therapy he can get. Blomkvist happens to be walking past her old house one night and is surprised to see Salander leaving in a car. Before she gets in the car a Huge man attacks her she drops her bag and keys and flees. Blomkvist tries to help Slander by attacking the attacker and Lisbeth is able to get away. She doesn't understand why Blomkvist is there and refuses to go back to her car and talk to him. Salander decides to hack Blomkvist's computer again to see what he is up to and finds out that 2 other journalists are writing book "From Russia with Love" about the sex trade. One name "Zala" stops Salander. She had a history with him. She goes to visit the journalists the same night Blomkvist was dropping by to pick up the manuscript. In between Salander leaving and Blomkvist arriving, someone murders both journalists. Blomkvist finds the bodies of his friends and the cops fins Salander's prints in the place. She is then wanted for the murder of three people because her new guardian Bjurman was shot the same night.Milton Securites, Blomkvist, and Salander try to uncover what is happening, all knowing Salander is innocent. The book makes you believe she may have killed Bjurman until the very end. Mimi is kidnapped by Zala because they think she knows where Salander is hiding. She is badly beat up and spends the rest of the book in the hospital. We then learn about the gasoline incident. Zala is Lisbeth's father and part of the sex trade. He constantly abused her mother and one day she decided she had enough and stabbed him. When he gets out of the hospital he lets Lisbeth know he "forgave her everything" which Lisbeth knew meant he was going to take it out on her. She came home from school one day to find her father leaving and her mother unconscious on the floor. Salander ran after him with a milk jug of gasoline which she threw on him in the car and a match. He was severely burned. There was evidently no doubt that she did it because a man saw the whole thing (and evidently never tried to help?) The police agent in charge was a part of Zala's sex network and tried to cover the whole thing up since "Zala" didn't really exist Salander's mother never fully recovered and had brain damage. Salander was sent to a medical institution where she was further abused by being constantly tied down. Salander, realizing the crime may never be solved, goes out to find Zala. She leaves Blomkvist a note that hints she may be committing suicide. Blomkvist finds where she has been living and once inside her apartment begins looking for clues as to where she is going. He finds the rape tape and watches it, suddenly everything makes sense to him. Salandar finds her father and the hit man, her 1/2 bother. she tries to fight them, but her father shoots her 3 times, once in the head and buries her. Salander is surprisingly still alive and unburies herself to try round two. She hides in the wood shed and kills her father while bleeding to death. Blomkvist shows up. He ties up the brother and the book ends with him calling for help for Salander.