The Girl Who Lived Twice is the third contribution by David Lagercrantz in his continuation of Steig Larsson’s Millennium series. It is reported to be his last contribution to the series, so I have yet to hear if another writer will continue the exploits of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
Yes, they are back in the fray. Lisbeth’s evil twin, Camilla, is still around causing trouble. Lisbeth is still hacking computers and on the hunt to end their feud once and for all. Blomvkist is looking into the matter of a dead beggar who had his card on his pocket. That may make for an interesting story for the crusading reporter. Sweden is just abuzz with all of this underworld crime and vengeance, in this particular novel anyway.
This one was a little bit of a slog to get through, but the climactic confrontation between the Salander sisters was kind of worth it. Lisbeth spent a lot of time in the shadows as Blomvkist was following leads and trying to control his frustration with his limited contact with his peculiar friend and ally.
It was fun to revisit this world started by the late Steig Larsson, but I am not sure Lagercrantz quite hit the mark left by the debut of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. My verdict was the novel was fairly entertaining but nothing that really blew me away. If the publishing house decides to commission another writer to continue the series, there is a blank slate for a new challenge and adversary, so that would be intriguing. It also makes sense to leave the story here and look forward to a new unique protagonist somewhere on the literary landscape.
So, the next novel I am going to read may hold some frustration for me, but it does feature Sherlock Holmes. In this recent pastiche work by Eric Brown, Holmes is engaged by Martians to solve a murder. Yeah, the Martians drop in at Baker Street. I have somewhat out this off, but it seems like a good time to see how Holmes does when he embarks on an adventure of The Martian Menace.
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