Per my review at Baltimore Reads: 
 The second installment opens in a similar fashion as the first. Readers are given a short introduction featuring an unknown girl on her thirteenth birthday strapped to a steel bed, completely at the mercy of her captor. Then Larsson picks up where he left off. Salander is at a hotel in Grenada, where she has completely cut herself off from the world (most especially Blomkvist). With the new fortune she swindled from Wennerstrom, she passes the days throwing back drinks and pondering over complicated mathematical equations. Meanwhile, Blomkvist is basking in the glory of the Wennerstrom affair, brought on by the book he published (with information from Salander) proving the businessman's illegal activities. His magazine is cooking up another juicy story with the help of a freelance journalist and his girlfriend centering around illegal sex trafficking. Blomkvist has made repeated attempts to keep in contact with Salander, but to no avail. The two seem to be going down completely different paths, until the grisly murder of Blomkvists's colleagues and Nils Bjurman links them together again. Salander is named the prime suspect. 
 The rest of The Girl Who Played With Fire follows Blomkvist's quest to prove Salander's innocence and find his friends' murderers, while Salander does her own snooping in hiding. What starts out as a murder investigation turns into the uncovering of decades of corruption and lies within Sweden's own government. Readers learn about the shocking past of Salander, whose hatred of authority makes so much more sense. Many new characters are introduced, including the villainous Alexander Zalachenko, police officers Bublanski and Modig, an unnamed blond giant, and the cruel Dr. Teleborian. Other characters are given more important roles, including the various staff members of Millennium and Dragan Armansky. 
 In terms of suspense, The Girl Who Played with Fire is equal to the bar that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo set. It is certainly a page turner. What makes it even more thrilling than the first book is that it is no longer about Blomkvist and Salander investigating a crime completely unrelated to their lives. The Vanger story is a thing of the past (only one Vanger makes an appearance in this novel), and the stakes are much higher as both characters' lives are severely affected by the mystery at hand. It ends in a terrifying showdown that leaves the life of one of the protagonists hanging in the balance.