Saturday, March 23, 2024

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff


Publication date: NetGalley
August 29, 2023
November 1, 2022 first published Sweden
The Millennium Series, book 7
Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor
Mystery, thriller, arc, digital, fiction 
368 pages
3/5
Book1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
Book2: The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson) 
Book3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Stieg Larsson)
Book4: The Girl in the Spider’s Web (David Langerkrantz)
Book5: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (David Langerkrantz)
Book6: The Girl Who Lived Twice (David Langerkrantz)

10/15/23-10/16/23

This novel added to the series does not have half of the intensity of the previous novels. It was a brave and admirable attempt for Karin Smirnoff in wanting to continue this story. The characters of Lisbaeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist come alive off the pages from the original books by Stieg Larsson. Those are big shoes to fill and unfortunately I found this to be a watered down comparison. I was disappointed as I anticipated the feeling of suspense and danger experienced previously. I think that David Langerkrantz made a decent contribution with his 3 additions. 

It was nice to consider how Lisbeth handled her devious sister Camilla's suicide leaving her daughter Svala in Lizbeth's care. It seems that criminal minds run in the family as this talented 13 year-old is capable of safe cracking as a means of paying off her mother's "debt". Lisbeth has always been somewhat of a rebellious loner who didn't cry when her father, head of a dangerous criminal empire, died. Then, there's Mikael Blomkvist who had wrapped affairs with Millennium publication. His daughter Pernilla is getting married to Henry Salo who happens to be a gambler. Of course, things don't go as planned and bullets fly and people get killed. 

I think this series needs to RIP, please before we forget how great a story Stieg Larsson created.

No comments:

Post a Comment