Cover image of "The girl who takes an eye for an eye," a new novel featuring Stieg Larsson's girl

Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium series was an international publishing phenomenon. Before Larsson’s untimely death at the age of 50 in 2004, he had completed only three of the projected ten novels in the series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (published in 2005), The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006), and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (2007). The three novels together sold more than 80 million copies around the world. Years later, a fourth bestselling volume appeared, based on material Larsson left unfinished at his death: The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2015), based on Larsson’s characters and written by Swedish author David Lagercrantz. Now a fifth entry has been published: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, again written by Lagercrantz.

Like millions of others, I grabbed up every one of the first three novels nearly as soon as they were published in English and devoured them immediately. Stieg Larsson’s girl was captivating. As I wrote in my review of Spider’s Web, “Lisbeth Salander is completely unbelievable. Yet this novel, and the three that preceded it, are crafted with such skill that you’ll probably get so caught up in the sheer complexity and suspense of the story that you won’t even think about how unlikely it all is.”


The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (Millennium #5) by David Lagercrantz ★★★☆☆


Unfortunately, I was disappointed by The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. All the earlier entries in the series rushed from action to action in an almost dizzying fashion. In Eye for an Eye, there are too many talky passages. At times, the story becomes tedious, and Stieg Larsson’s girl becomes hard to recognize. If I weren’t so bound to the Millennium series, I might well have put the book down before I reached the halfway point.

I’ve reviewed the whole series of five books written to date in the Millennium cycle at The magical Lisbeth Salander novels. You might also be interested in reading my reviews of the Top 10 mystery and thriller series.

And for a guide to the best Scandinavian mysteries and thrillers, check out The best Nordic noir series from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.

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