32.12: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (iBook, originally published 2010)

I read and commented on the first two novels in Larsson's trilogy earlier this summer, but it took me some time to get back to my iPad and finish the third. Traveling to and from Comic Con earlier this month gave me the perfect opportunity to finish things up, and thrillers tend to be perfect airport and airplane reading--exciting enough to keep my attention but not deep enough to require real focus. All in all, I'd say that the third book follows through well and keeps the momentum started in the second book of the trilogy.

At first I was skeptical that the plot established in volume two would sustain itself for a whole third volume, but Larsson does a good job creating and revealing a complicated government conspiracy--overflowing with bad guys of all types that just can't stop doing bad stuff. It's scary and evil, but just bungled and self-serving enough to make it believable. Even more remarkably, Larsson manages to make the generally unlikeable Salander, the primary victim/protagonist of the series, a sympathetic character. I've been trying to think of a comparable literary accomplishment, but nothing comes to mind. I mean, even the people who support and defend this girl for a variety of reasons don't know how to relate to her, can't really say she is their friend, and are hard pressed to say that they really like her. Yet, somehow I actually cared about what happened to her. 

Maybe it's a Swedish thing. Until I read Lars Keplar and Hakan Nesser, as recommended by a friend and my mom, I can't be too sure.