RaveThe Portland OregonianThe devil as depicted in Ig is not so much the perpetrator of evil as its revealer. He is a magnet for human ugliness, and occasionally he retaliates … It is new evidence that shifts the book dramatically into the form of a nicely crafted psychological crime novel. In long, meandering flashbacks, Ig recalls his earliest times with the beloved Merrin and with his friend Lee Tourneau. These segments are lush and evocative, wistfully nostalgic and engineered for the precise timing of each revelation. Once the connections are clear, Horns switches back to the supernatural present and becomes a furious thriller with a novice satanic superhero hellbent on revenge.
Erik Larson
RaveThe Portland OregonianThe Dodds are far from naive, but they arrive wanting to give the rise of German nationalism the benefit of the doubt. Many prominent Americans and Europeans admire Hitler. Others are fearful, but the political sophisticates are convinced that the Little Corporal and his Brown Shirts are so crude and violent that they'll soon be voted out of office … Larson's fastidious scholarship provides the appropriate gravity to this subject. But his psychological perception and empathic imagination lend flesh to the documents, music to the ballrooms. He gives a throbbing pulse to the foolish and the wise, the malignant and the kind.
Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
RaveThe Portland OregonianThe first two books solve separate crimes that reveal kinks in Sweden's culture as well as Salander and her saga. But The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is about the grand conspiracy that has hounded Salander from birth … Some readers suggest that one can pick up Hornet's Nest without reading the previous episodes. I disagree. The three volumes comprise one immense novel, and reading the last without the first two would be like starting on page 1,000. The subject is the abuse of women, and how to combat it … If his reporter's love for information sometimes overwhelms the narrative flow, he kicks back into high gear within a few pages …a rewarding entertainment, and a satisfying solution to the mysteries that surround Lisbeth Salander.
