The Girl Who Played with Fire characters

Appears from the start

The brilliant, guarded hacker and investigator from the first book, now independently wealthy after the events on Hedeby island. As this book opens she has been traveling abroad for a year, keeping her distance from everyone she knows, including Blomkvist. Slight, tattooed, and fiercely private, she remains a legal ward of the state and deeply distrustful of authority, hiding a razor-sharp analytical mind and a hard-won capacity for retaliation behind a deliberately unreadable exterior.

Appears from the start

The financial journalist and co-owner of Millennium magazine, his reputation restored after the triumphs of the previous book. Dogged and principled, he has not heard from Salander since she cut off contact, and remains puzzled and hurt by her silence. He throws himself into a hard-hitting new investigative project for the magazine and, as events unfold, becomes determined to help Salander when she is drawn into danger.

Appears from the start

Editor-in-chief and co-owner of Millennium, Blomkvist's closest partner and on-and-off lover. Steady and decisive, she helps steer the magazine's ambitious new expose and stands with Blomkvist as the story spirals into a criminal investigation.

Appears from the start

The head of Milton Security and Salander's former employer, who retains a protective, paternal concern for her despite her secrecy. When trouble surrounds Salander, he lends his resources and instincts to the effort to understand what is happening to her.

Appears from the start

Salander's former legal guardian and one of the very few people who has ever treated her with genuine kindness and respect. Recovering from a serious stroke, he knows more about her troubled past than almost anyone and remains loyal to her, offering insight and support to those trying to help her.

Appears from the start

The lawyer appointed as Salander's guardian in the previous book, who abused his authority over her and whom she then forced into submission by threatening to expose his own crimes. He remains her legal trustee, resentful and humiliated, and continues to nurse a private hatred of the young woman who turned the tables on him.

Appears from the start

A freelance investigative journalist who brings Millennium a hard-hitting project exposing the sex-trafficking trade and the respectable clients who use it. Committed and thorough, he works to name powerful men involved in the exploitation of trafficked women, a story that promises to be explosive.

Appears from the start

A criminologist and Dag Svensson's partner, who is completing a doctoral thesis on sex trafficking and the men who buy sex. Her academic research underpins and complements Dag's journalism, giving the planned expose both investigative depth and scholarly weight.

Appears from the start

A confident, independent young woman who is a friend and occasional lover of Salander's. She takes over Salander's old apartment and enjoys a relationship with her that is casual and free of demands, and she is drawn into events when attention turns toward Salander.