The Continuation of Stieg Larrson's Millennium Series

I read the original 3 Stieg Larsson Lisbeth Salander books, the first three of the Millennium Series, several years ago for book club. Same book club selected book #5 as our June title.

Stieg Larson published The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in the series, back in 2008. I read the books out of order. 1, then 3, then 2. Three, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the best. I didn't love it. I liked it. And I liked it better than the other two.

After being unable to get through my Jo Nesbo book a few months ago, I was reluctant to read another Scandinavian author. I wasn't bothered by the fact that I hadn't read the 4th book, The Girl in the Spider's Web, since I had no problem reading book 3 before #2, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I'm wondered if I'd remember enough of the series for it to make sense. And I wondered what I'd feel about this book in the series being penned by a different author.

I remembered plenty. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye could easily be a standalone book, although having read earlier books in the series made me a whole lot more familiar with the characters. No problem there.

And truth be told, I think I preferred David Lagercrantz's writing style better than Stieg Larsson's. It wasn't that different, but just enough different for me to notice a preference. Then again, it could be that I preferred the translator who worked on this book better than earlier translators.

A lot in the book seemed very timely. Talks of disinformation and fake news. Fake tweeting. Hacker attacks. There's reference to a stock market collapse. I'm assuming it's fictional since I'm pretty sure a collapse not too long ago would be something I'd remember. But I found the explanation of the collapse pretty interesting. It describes the stock market as being  all about faith and dreams and anxieties and convictions.

Crime fiction is not a genre I'd pick up on my own but I try to read everything my community book club reads even if I'm not going to be attending the meeting. (Have I ever mentioned that I lead the community book club?) I am curious what others thought of the book but so far no one is talking.

I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who read and enjoyed any earlier books in the Millennium Series.