Reviews

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff

crystalnv's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I loved it! I wasn't sure if I'd remember enough from the previous books to follow along, but the witty, loveable characters quickly refreshed in my memory. I absolutely flew through this book! I can't wait for another one in the series!

thebookishlass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

emziesreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

kagakusha's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

chaosofcold's review against another edition

1.0

A toothless dragon and a bumbling Blomkvist. I’m not fully sure what went wrong but The Girl in the Eagles talons just simply doesn’t go anywhere.

It introduces far too many characters and gives them nothing to do, adds threats that go nowhere and a mysterious villain who makes 70s Bond villains seem hammy. Add the a precocious teen and you’ve got a sequel by numbers.

This was a struggle to finish unfortunately and I did nearly give in at several points. I hope this is just a new author finding their feet in an established world as the fundamental strengths of these characters are currently awol.

sjkuzma's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ahinks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

gredi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

thebooktrail88's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 

A novel to transport you deep in Northern Sweden

The novel is set in Gasskas, a fictional town in northern Sweden. Plenty of remote and destitute locations with no people around. Perfect for a novel that looks at criminal goings on in windfarm projects. There’s a lot of good scene setting as we are also in the land of Sami reindeer. Quite a mix but I enjoyed being somewhere I haven’t been before in a novel.

In the land of the wind farms, there are plenty of criminal investigations to get your teeth into. Corruption is everywhere – even in the coldest parts of the world it would seem. Criminal gang is trying to keep money from projects for themselves. There’s corrupt officials and even some sort of Hell’s Angels. There’s one criminal mastermind that I particularly hated.

I did like the way the action had moved from Stockholm since it is so closely linked to the earlier ‘The Girl …’ books. Mikael comes up north for a wedding and since he’s not working at the moment, he is in the mood for an investigation or two. Lisbeth is due to become a guardian to her half-brother’s daughter. With him now dead, Svala now needs someone to care for her. More so than most as she has a condition which means that she feels no pain. Might come in handy later on if she turns out like Elisabeth I thought.

I did struggle with some of this. It is very, very dark and violent. It felt over the top to me. Kudos to Sarah Death as the translation flowed well. There were a lot of threads left untied at the end so there are going to be more books in the series.

Wonder what Svala will turn out to be? A mini Lisbeth Salander? 

karenina4777's review

Just isn't the same as the first six books in the series. The character I thought I knew act completely against character again and again, and the plot just wasn't very engaging.