I absolutely loved the first three books in this series. Disappointingly, I didn’t connect with the characters in this book, I felt out of touch with them and although Lisbeth has grown older, she felt like a different person to me. I felt very confused by the trail of the story, in particular the frequent ‘voice in italics’, I’m not even sure it was the same person throughout. Some parts of the plot ( the opening scene) was written vividly, forcing me to read on with anticipation, however I felt it too drawn out and disorganised.

In this instalment of the wonderful “Millennium” series, we meet Lisbeth as she heads north to take care of her niece Svala, who is as gifted as her aunt, but whose mother is missing. We move through various POVs and also revisit Blomkvist, who is dealing with his own troubles at his magazine.

They are drawn into an investigation into corruption, but unfortunately that is where the similarities with the earlier books in the series end. Maybe the translation is off, but I found this quite choppy and difficult to follow. The characters don’t act like the characters I know and love from the original works, and I was also unsure of the new characters introduced.

This is one that I really wanted to like but, unfortunately, it missed the mark for me.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

She’s back. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no longer the Lisbeth Salander we were introduced to 18 years ago in Stieg Larsson’s first Millennium novel. Now older and more responsible, Lisbeth is co-owner of Milton Security with her old mentor Dragan Armansky and is also appointed as guardian of a 13-year-old girl.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/the-girl-in-the-eagles-talons/

Part of the Millennium series of novels, continued by other authors after the original Larson trilogy.

I'm afraid that these do seem to be going downhill since the originals however if this was to be regarded as an entirely stand alone novel outwith that particular series it is reasonably good.

Quite a strong storyline and some characters who need no introduction alongside several who do. The plot has a decent pace to it and is tied up relatively neatly. It's worth a read if the thriller genre is your thing but just don't compare it to the original trilogy.

I loved the Stieg Larson books and was looking forward to seeing how another writer could continue the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Saga.
Even though Lisbeth, Michael and some villains are in this book it had a different feel for me. Still an enjoyable read.
Lisbeth meets her niece Svala and has to temporarily look after her as her mother has disappeared. Does it have anything to do with the wind farm that is proposed to be built?

Karin Smirnoff is one of the more unknown in the realms of Scandinavian writers. Although her work is mostly unseen in the UK, she began to make a name for herself with the Jana Kippo Series, first released in 2018.

Since then, Smirnoff has written a handful of novels, mostly in the thriller genre.

A trilogy, and beyond
Book number #7 in what was originally billed as a trilogy, Lisbeth returns; but this time she has a partner. No, it’s not Mikael Blomkvist (although he is a big part of this book), it’s her twelve-year-old niece, Svala.

The story centers around a plot for government officials trying to tap into some of Gasskas’ natural resources. However, these resources are underneath the land of a stubborn old lady who won’t budge and a reindeer farm.

Blomkvist’s estranged daughter is getting married to a politician from Gasskas who is putting up some resistance to the change, leading to Blomkvist’s next big story for Millenium magazine (now a podcast).

Elsewhere, Svala’s mother has disappeared which leaves her in the custody of her aunt, Lisbeth Salander. Svala is currently under surveillance from a local biker gang as they feel her mother has stolen from them and is in hiding.

Family Matters
Immediately, we’re playing the whole, “Here’s a family member that you knew nothing about, but you must now work with/against them to achieve your goal”. From memory, I believe this is the fourth time this has happened in the series thus far.

Lisbeth looking after a younger girl has been done before, but when that said girl has the intelligence of an international spy, along with what seems like basic weapon training, there is little at stake. I never cared for her journey, and Lisbeth herself felt much more grounded in her actions. Likewise, she doesn’t step to the forefront until a third of the way through, so there’s plenty of build-up with little payoff.

I feel it was an attempt to build tension, but it meant that my enthusiasm to engage with Lisbeth fizzled out by the time she arrived on the scene.

Another pet peeve is the book becomes self-referential and meta. There are multiple references to real-world events and even subjects relating to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larsson, Noomi Rapace, etc.

This completely takes you out of the book and constantly reminds you, “Hey, this story isn’t like the others. We can be fun and quirky.” It makes it look like a poor imitation in comparison.

Maybe this book isn’t as terrible as I’m making out. Surely, a major publisher like Quercus Publishing wouldn’t release a story if they themselves thought it wasn’t up to scratch.

It’s possible that I’ve become jaded and tired of the series. I’ve written about all of the books, and the trilogy in much greater detail, and this means I see a lot of the patterns repeating themselves. To an everyday book buyer, that might not be the case.

If this is your first taste of the series, there’s a chance you’d play it off as okay in the genre of thrillers. However, I can only write this review with my perspective in mind – and that’s never to undermine anyone involved with the project.

Conclusion
The writing feels shallow in comparison to previous editions, the characters are cardboard; offering nothing new to their journey, and the plot is lukewarm at the best of times – not to mention that this feels like a setup for another (dare I say) trilogy! All these combine to an uneventful end to the series; for me at least.

The next instalment of the Millenium series is here, and it is like it has never been away.

Lisbeth Salander is back, and like you have never seen her before. Brilliant, troubled Lisbeth has to take on a new role in her life. As well as being a hacker, part owner of a business, and living her life by her own rules, she is about to be an Aunt to her half-brother child: brilliant Savla who finds herself in hot water and needs rescuing.

And unknowingly, Mikael Blomkvist finds himself in the same area for his daughter's upcoming wedding to a man who is not the innocent and dedicated man he appears to be. Fate is about to bring them together once again to aid one another as they become fates pawns in a game to root out the plague that is infecting the area.

Smirnoff does a wonderful job of continuing the books to the standard they started with, and if anything, this has to be my favourite one since the first book.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about reading a new book in the series written by someone else but this book was a pleasant surprise. It still has the heart and soul of the other books with another exciting story about kidnap and murder and I was not disappointed. I love the two main characters in this series although for me I would like them to be together but that’s just the romantic. In me. Give it a go.

Absolutely adored all the original series by Stieg Larsson so was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I struggled to finish it and was glad to get to the ending.

I read the original trilogy by Stieg Larsson’ avidly, so was looking forward to receiving this advance reader copy of The Girl in the Eagle's Talons from NetGalley.
I haven't read the others in the Millennium series, so maybe was expecting too much. The novel opens with brutality and continues in that vein periodically throughout the book. There are unexpected twists but I was not invested enough in the characters to care very much. I think part of the problem is the book has no clear protagonist yet the antagonist is very vividly drawn. I found the relationships between characters hard to follow. Also, hopping in and out of characters' heads, with points of view changing too quickly, was confusing and this contributed to my feeling of not being engaged in the narrative. Most of all, I was disappointed that Lisbeth Salander plays rather minor role. The title is a complete misnomer.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

Book 7 in the Millennium series sees the return of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Blomkvist is heading North to the town of Gasskas for his daughter's wedding. She's marrying the  leader of the municipality, but as Blomkvist arrives he begins to hear rumours about his future son in law that he can't ignore. Salander is also heading to Gasskas, in her case to step in as a potential foster carer for her niece, who's mother has disappeared. Could the disappearance be linked to Blomkvist's potential son in law?

I have loved reading this series over the years. Unfortunately I think this is likely to be the last one that I read. I had misgivings after the previous installment, but figured I'd give this a go since it's a new author.

I found this one very hard to read. The writing didn't seem to flow very well at all, and it was incredibly difficult to keep track of the jumping points of view. I'm not sure if this is a writing style thing, or due to things being lost in translation or what exactly was happening, but it wasn't a great reading experience.

The plot itself was great once it got going, it seemed to take an awful lot of set up though and there was a lot of characters to keep track of. Smirnoff did bring everything together towards the end of the book and link everything together which was very well done considering how many threads were running.

The ending is relatively open which is something I'm never a fan of, but for those who do enjoy this one I would say it's likely there will be more to come.

Thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books and MacLehose Press for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I thank the publisher and Net Galley for providing a copy in return for a fair and unbiased review
Having received this book I had to hurry up and read the last book in the second trilogy to make sure I was up to date. My reaction to that second trilogy had been mixed, enjoying the first and third, but finding the second a bit tedious {as is so often the case with trilogies]. My reaction to this book was that it was well worn characters in search of a storyline to build another trilogy on. I doubt that I would have looked forward to the next book if I was not already hooked, because it did not grab my attention enough.

This was a good book, but, at times I found it confusing. The names were hard to get around and the plot was silly. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review

All I can say is that Karin Smirnoff has added to the Dragon tattoo series with another spell binding book that included characters from Stieg Larsson's well known books. I won't give anything away about the book but just to say it was an excellent read, hard to put down.

2,5
I enjoyed the first third, but then it occasionally became silly and unbelievable; the plot and especially the main characters. This just didn’t convince me.
Thanks to the publishers plus Netgalley UK and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up.

Millennium #7

Change is coming to Sweden's far north: its untapped natural resources are sparking a gold rush with the criminal underworld leading the charge. But it's not the prospect of riches that brings Lisbeth Salander to the small town of Gasskas. She has been named guardian to her niece Svala, whose mother disappeared. Two things soon become clear: Svala is remarkably gifted teenager - and she's being watched. Mikael Blomkvist is also heading north, He has seen better days. Millennium magazine is on it's final print issue, and relations with his daughter are strained. Worse still, there are troubling rumours surrounding the man she's about to marry.

This is the first book by the author that I've read. It did take me a little while to get into the book. I don't know if it was because the series is established and I'm not used to the writing style, or something is lost in translation. This is a descriptively written book, but it didn't really hold my attention for any length of time. I do think it was me and not the book that was at fault.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #QuercusBooks and the author #KarinSmirnoff for my ARC of #TheGirlInTheEaglesTallons in exchange for an honest review.

Lisbeth Salander is back for another exciting read. She has to look after a family member that she has never met before and she isn’t too sure how to handle the young girl. Svala just wants to find her mother but she knows that she needs to be careful as some bad men are after her. Can she trust Lisbeth?
A young child is kidnapped and Lisbeth will do what she can to help her friend Mikael to get him back. She has her own problems to deal with as she knows that she needs to help Svala.
Corruption is the biggest threat to them all and it is a race against time to find the missing. A good read hard to follow at times but still enjoyable.
Lisbeth is a strange woman she acts all tough but she does care about others. She hasn’t had an easy life and she has made many enemies but that won’t stop her from helping when she can. Mikael tried to be a friend to Lisbeth but he does find that she ignores him at times. He is a good man that has made many mistakes but he is trying. I wonder if they would ever get together.
Thank you Netgalley for the copy. This is my voluntary review.

💭 ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
There were so many different POVs at the start that I found it difficult to get into the story. It took me about 35/40% before I figured out who was who and what was going on. The pace did pick up a bit after that but I couldn’t really connect with the characters anymore. It did have some good suspense, especially towards to the end. But ultimately, this wasn’t for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤓 ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Multiple POVs
Suspense
Strong female lead

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ:
𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘯’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩: 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘬𝘢𝘴. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘚𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘢, 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳: 𝘚𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳—𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥.

𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘬𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩. 𝘏𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴. 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘬𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦.

DNF at 24%.

I truly loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when it first came out, despite the dark nature of the book and I read the following two books with almost as much enthusiasm, although even then I thought it was becoming a bit far-fetched. I'm afraid that this book stretched my credulity to breaking point with a girl that can't feel pain (albeit I now realise she is the daughter of Lisbeth's brother who also couldn't feel pain).

Maybe its me, but the sheer awfulness of practically every character, the murders, the beatings, the abuse, made me not want to carry on reading. Also, the translation felt off, or maybe its that the storytelling jumped about so much with so many natural words that I couldn't work out what was going on.

Anyway, it felt like it was all going to get nastier and I don't want those sorts of images in my head. This is a thing I've found about authors who write horror or about serial killers, they have to escalate the atrocities to go one better than the last one and I can see that this is going the same way so I stopped at 24%. However, I am sure that people who enjoy dark detective stories with characters with special abilities will love this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

An enjoyable read but not quite up to the standard of the original author. It is still a good Scandi-noir so I'm sure many will really enjoy it.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.