The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye

In prison because of her actions taken to rescue a young and troubled child (detailed in the prior novel of the series), Lizbeth Salander is stoically serving her time.  As with life outside, the prison environment operates with a delicate balance of power that can tip either way on any given day.  These are all niceties that Salander prefers to ignore - unless it serves her own purposes to enter into the messy fray that is prison politics.  The killer Benito rules the prison with an iron fist and her latest joy is to torture a young Arab inmate who does not have the defences and skills that Salander possesses.  There is an imbalance here that Salander takes upon herself to re-address.

Visited weekly by her ally, famous journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Salander isn’t that concerned about what she is missing out on whilst incarcerated.  It will all be waiting for her when she is released.  It does worry her however when her elderly friend and former guardian Holger Palmgren makes the effort to come to the prison.  Palmgren is gravely ill, and lives these days under the care of nurses that visit his apartment daily to attend to his needs.  Salander has few friends and the only certainty she has in life is that if anyone hurts her allies, there will be blood shed.