The Girl Who Played with Fire The Girl Who Played with Fire The Girl Who Played with Fire () is the second novel in the best-selling "Millennium" series by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009. The book features many of the characters who appeared in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2005), among them the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant computer hacker and social misfit, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of "Millennium " magazine. Widely seen as a critical success, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" was also (according to
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo the books has characteristics similar to that of Larsson's magazine, "Expo", such as its socio-political leanings and its financial difficulties. Both Larsson's longtime partner Eva Gabrielsson and English translator Steven T. Murray have said that Christopher MacLehose (who works for British publisher Quercus) "needlessly prettified" the English translation; as such, Murray requested he be credited under the pseudonym "Reg Keeland". The English release also changed the title, even though Larsson specifically refused to allow the Swedish publisher to do so, and the size of Salander's dragon tattoo; from a large piece covering her entire back, to a small shoulder tattoo.