Great Reads for Great Readers

The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, by Karin Smirnoff.

    Swedish Author Stieg Larsson died nearly twenty years ago, but Lisbeth Salander, his most famous character, is still alive and well, having been resurrected by several writers over time – with varying degrees of success. Now it is Karin Smirnoff’s turn to breathe life, truth and logic into Lisbeth – and Mikael Blomkvist, outspoken, prominent Millenium Magazine journalist, her ally when needed, and partner in crime when necessary. 

     Lisbeth’s latest (mis)adventure is set in Northern Sweden, lands and forests teeming with untapped minerals and natural resources: the local councils are rubbing their hands and salivating at the vast profits to be made if they can sell to the highest bidders, huge international companies who will strip everything bare before they leave and go on to the next place to wreak havoc and devastation.                     Coincidentally Mikael is in the area because he has been invited to the wedding of his daughter to the head of the town council – and instigator of all the dodgy deals. Dodgy because it is not his land he is offering for sale but land owned by Reindeer farmers and many other smallholders who have no intention of selling their land. 

     Lisbeth is in the same town – not because she wants to be, but she has been summoned by the authorities because she is the only living relative of Kvala, a precociously intelligent 13 year-old girl whose mother has gone missing: Lisbeth is her aunt, for Kvala is the daughter of Lisbeth’s late, loathed half-brother Ronald Niederman. How the authorities tracked Lisbeth down is anyone’s guess; suffice to say the two relatives do not hit it off immediately: deep suspicion abides, especially when Kvala wants to know about her father, of which she has no memory. What was he like? Fair question. Except that he was a monster and a murderer, impervious to pain – and he tried to kill Lisbeth on their father’s orders. Fortunately for her, she ‘removed’ him from the equation, but how do you tell that to your niece?

     And where is Kvala’s mother? Kvala knows that she was involved with some very shady people, but fully expected to beat them at their own game – nothing like a spot of blackmail to increase the family fortunes! Except that the tables may have been turned: there are some very big players now among the shady people, intent on wrecking and raping the land for its treasure – small fry like Kvala’s mother are flies to be squashed. 

     Ms Smirnoff has created a fitting and masterful tribute to Stig Larsson’s beloved characters. This is the first book of a planned trilogy, and it encompasses all the environmental problems that worry us most, while still more than living up to its thriller status. Roll on Book Two! SIX STARS.