Film, Radio & TV

Having recently finished listening to the first book in this series, 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', I held my breath and immediately dived back in with this, the second. I am glad to say that I found it at least as good as the first, and some of the unanswered questions about Lizbet Salander's past became clearer as the story unfolded. The characters were further developed, with, I am glad to say, Blomkvist allowed to grow more in the second part of the book. If you have read the first book, then you know to expect rather explicit descriptions of violence, and this book also contains similar material. Once again, impeccably read by Saul Reichlin, who has to be complimented on getting his tongue around all the Scandinavian place names with great dexterity.
Some nice twists towards the end! I highly recommend.

A curious story - a child vampire who has to drink blood to live and who is forced to use all means at their disposal to do this in order to survive. This character is far from the cardboard cutout Dracula horror - you begin to see them as a victim as well as a predator. I thought the relationship between the vampire and Oscar was touchingly innocent as they battled to stay true to their friendship as their worlds became increasingly complicated. Yes, the story can be gruesome, but let's face it so were many of Grimm's tales, and for me there were many fairytale elements in this story. I really enjoyed it and the juxtaposition of fantasy with reality was cleverly done.
BTW, it is beautifully read, with a wide range of distinctive character voices - another triumph for Steven Pacy!

I bought this book based on the recommendations above, and am extremely pleased I did. It is a great story and I found myself grabbing every opportunity to listen to it. The poor old dog nearly got her legs walked off so that I had the excuse to find out what happens next! Lizbet Salander is a great character, complex but compelling. The narration was just perfect and the slight oddities that occurred sometimes in what was obviously a translated text in fact rather complimented the whole Scandinavian atmosphere.
I was lucky that just as I finished this book the follow-up, The Girl Who Played with Fire was published at Audible, so I could immediately resubmerge myself in more dark doings.....