Oh dear, I’m feeling quite miserable.  Since December I decided to make a diary of all the books I read (as I finished reading them).  This started just after New Years and was part of my resolutions.  I get through quite a few books and it seemed like a good idea to put some comments down about them.  Nine months and 60 or so books later, and following a problem with my laptop, I have lost all of them.  Never mind, I’ll just have to start again.  I thought I would start with some of my past novels.  If I remember correctly I think I started the year with the second of the Stieg Larsson Novels, The Girl Who Played with Fire.  I thought the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was an excellent book and I was keen to follow it up.  I think that Lisbeth is a really excellent character.  I suppose, in the first book I struggled a bit at the beginning with all the characters names and place names but I soon got over that as I became gripped with the tale.  The first book is almost like an introduction to the characters with the plot being secondary or at least a way to establish the groundwork for book number two.  The second book gets much more to grips with the people who you are now familiar with and Lisbeth’s story starts to unfold – again revolving around a plot which is all interlinked.  I have only one criticism really and that relates to the second book towards the end.  Knowing a little more about Lisbeth by this time it is very difficult to imagine that she would find herself in that situation – to me it screamed of a set up and I’m no way as intelligent as she is!  So, I suppose I find it difficult to believe that she would fall for it…  I haven’t read the third book yet, mainly because I had so many other books to read and also because I like to have a space in between sometimes (also, I think, knowing that there can’t be any more in this series I’m reluctant to bring it all to a close).  All that being said I think the first two books are excellent, well written, gripping and I would, and have, recommended them to a few friends.  A*

Millennium Trilogy