Karin Smirnoff is the latest Swedish author who has taken the baton of continuing the Millenium series started by the late Stieg Larsson, and she may be running off a pier with it if The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons is anything to go by.
Just to recap a bit, Steig Larsson wrote the first trilogy featuring the dangerous and unusual Lisbeth Salander beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He passed away not long after publication, so he never really got to enjoy the acclaim that was displayed. David Lagercrantz was commissioned by the estate to produce another trilogy starting with The Girl in the Spider’s Web. His contribution was not as good as the original author’s obviously, but it was pretty good.
Now, we have this Smirnoff woman taking a crack at it, and the first effort is not that encouraging.
Crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist is heading north to see his daughter get married. He is in crisis because his beloved newspaper is getting into the digital age and dumping the print edition. His daughter’s fiancée seems to be in cahoots with some rather dubious power brokers. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander has been prospering as a partner in the security firm for which she had worked when introduced. Salander is made aware of a niece who is the daughter of an unsavory sibling who tried to kill her some years ago, and she has been named guardian to this young girl. Svala has some unique gifts of her own and is a little cleverer and more precocious than most thirteen-year-olds. There is no question that she is family. A shocking kidnapping occurs, and Lisbeth and Mikael find themselves working together because both of them have family in danger from some powerful and corrupt people.
I had a hard time being drawn to Smirnoff’s version of Lisbeth. Lisbeth did not seem quite as intriguing as she was presented by Larsson. Even Lagercrantz was able to retain some of the mystique and dark humor that was unique to Lisbeth.
Svala was supposedly just as strange and perceptive as Lisbeth, but she didn’t hold my interest. When the big kidnapping occurs, things pick up a bit, but I found most of the story just sort of dragged up until that point.
Smirnoff isn’t necessarily an awful writer, but she just didn’t replicate the spark provided by the deceased Stieg Larssen. I am curious enough to see if she can redeem herself once the second novel comes out. That has yet to be announced, but it is known that she is contracted to do a trilogy. Anyway, maybe others found more to enjoy than I did, but it seems Salander was in better hands with the two dudes who preceded this current author.
I think it’s time to return to the Starship Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk with Greg Cox’s latest contribution to the Star Trek range, Lost to Eternity.
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