The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson

The final book in the late Swedish author’s trilogy. Like some others who have read it, I felt that the emphasis on Swedish politics in this concluding volume drags the action down a bit, but the main characters we have learned to know and care about remain fascinating – particularly the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander. As someone of Scandinavian descent, I found the amount of coffee consumed to be pretty true to my experiences in northern Minnesota – who but a Swede would offer coffee to someone at 2:30 AM who had just narrowly escape disaster? What, you aren’t jangled enough?? I regret that there will be no more in this series as I would love to know more about Lisbeth, Mikael Blomkvist, Erika Berger and the newly introduced Monica Figuerola. 563 pp.