The late Stieg Larsson centered his Millennium Trilogy around cruelty towards women -- and the second of the trilogy, "The Girl Who Played With Fire," is a tightly wound thriller that is almost as good as the first. It lacks some of the raw, wild, dark energy, but it tangles together some razor-sharp social commentary (sex trafficking) with a plot centering on Lisbeth Salander. 
 A year after "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," Millennium magazine has a new reporter -- Dag Svensson and his girlfriend Mia are doing reports/books on sex trafficking and prostitution. At the same time, Lisbeth Salander has returned to Stockholm, and is cybereavesdropping on Mikael and Millennium -- only to discover an all-too-familiar name in Mia's sex trafficking report. Zala. 
 Then Mikael finds both of them shot dead in their apartment, and Nils Bjurman -- the cruel "guardian" who raped Lisbeth -- has also been murdered. 
 Lisbeth is the only suspect. But Mikael firmly believes she didn't do it -- especially since a hostile blond giant is going around beating up anyone (a trainer, a casual girlfriend) who might know Lisbeth's whereabouts. As Lisbeth goes on her own dark mission, she tells Mikael that he should look for someone named "Zala" -- but it turns out this mystery man has ties to Lisbeth's own dark past. 
 Lisbeth Salander was something of a mystery in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- we knew she was troubled, a brilliant hacker, and had been in a psych ward. But "The Girl Who Played With Fire" rips away all that mystery and shows us where Lisbeth Salander came from, and how she became a lonely, punky avenging angel. It's pretty nasty, and it ends on a cliffhanger (for crying out loud!). 
 The biggest problem with this story is Larsson's story feels more scattered and hard to follow. But his style is still brilliant -- gritty and grimy, with lots of unpolished fighting, bloody violence, and some moments of sweetness (Lisbeth visiting her elderly ex-guardian). The most disturbing parts are undeniably the glimpses of Lisbeth's past, as well as the brutal descriptions of the sex trade (a man raping a girl to "train" her). 
 And it's all wound around more unpleasant aspects of modern Swedish society, centering on cruelty towards women -- sex trafficking in a modern country, and the evil "Zala's" ability to get away with anything he wanted. 
 And while Mikael is still a major force in this book, the spotlight is on Lisbeth, especially since Larsson sketches out a backstory for her (including a brain-damaged mother, her boxing skills, a twin sister, and so on). She's all half-healed hurts, wildcat energy and avenging dark angel mentality -- and there's something weirdly hypnotic about a character so completely outside the lines of "normal" society. 
 The Girl Who Played With Fire" doesn't have the spark of the first book, but it still has an electric brilliance and scathing social exploration. Just be sure to have the third book on hand by the time you finish.