Tom Sawyer.

Sherlock Holmes.

Atticus Finch.

Joseph K.

The literary world is full of indelible characters. Those fully-fleshed out individuals that are so original, so unique that they jump off the page and come to life in your mind.

Alongside the Heathcliff’s and Phillip Marlows there must now be space made for Lisbeth Salander. The heroine of Larsson’s posthumous girl trilogy is at once sympathetic, iconic and elusive.

And in the second novel Larsson really brings us into the psyche and tortured history of this character. Mystery novels are churned out at an alarming rate and the vast majority of them are instantly forgettable. Lisbeth Salander, however, will not let you easily forget this one. Introduced to us in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Salander is a skilled computer hacker who also has been pronounced incompetent by the Swedish Judicial System. However, there is more to her than the tattoos, modifications and technological sleight-of-hand.

Once again, Salander’s path crosses with the main character from Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomvquist. However, this time the story will not only force Salander to confront her own past but also find her wanted for murder.

We get one more book from this masterful voice who died too soon. If you haven’t read either of the girl books then by all means pick them up before the final volume, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, is released in May.