Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth Salander is enjoying her new life of wealth lazing in a hotel in Granada. No one knows where she is (as usual), while back in Sweden, Blomkvist and Millenium magazine are preparing a an expose of the sex slave business in Sweden.

Publisher Mikael Blomkvist and the police are conducting parallel investigations into three horrifying murders -- and their initial evidence points straight at young computer genius and social misfit Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist hasn't seen Salander in nearly an year, except for one night when he happened to witness a huge man attempting to kidnap her and both she and the attacker eluded him. He's bewildered about why she cut him off cold, but had accepted her decision -- until now. He doesn't believe Salander killed these victims. Well, at least not two of them. He has to contact her, find out how she's become embroiled in this, and help her. Salander, as usual, has her own ideas about who she'll see and when.

I really enjoyed the first book and while this book wasn't quite as strong it was still compelling enough to make we want to read it. As usual it is thought provocing but I did miss some of the personal touches of the first one.

Interesting side note: Stieg Larsson, who lived in Sweden, was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo and a leading expert on antidemocratic right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations. He died in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and the third novel in the series.