Yes….pleeeease…..that would help.

Absolutely!!! There were parts where I was completely lost!!! Too many police officers!! :S This makes the third book very slow, very different from the others… Anyway, finished all 3 and loved them.

Posted by M in Mexico ,

I found this much needed guide…

http://www.shmoop.com/girl-played-with-fire/characters.html

Posted by Tricia in Florida ,

loved the first two books but third is difficult to read. I have found it boring at times

Posted by Jill in West Virginia ,

Third book takes awhile for the reader to get into and is best read with a pad of paper and pen nearby to write down list of character names as they appear and to keep track of good/bad ones. Confusing, too, that Larsson sometimes refers to characters by their first name and other times by only their last name, so need to know characters’ full names!

Posted by Ann in Michigan ,

To Ann in Michigan. I said the same exact thing to my wife while reading (and still reading) The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest

Posted by captain geraldo in boston ,

i am having trouble keeping up with all the characters , i have to go back and see who is who , enjoying the book but iam confused with all the characters,

Posted by elizabeth brown in okla. city, okla. ,

I came here looking for a character list as I too have gotten confused with all the different characters. Thanks to Tricia (above), I found this, which may help: http://www.shmoop.com/girl-who-kicked-hornets-nest/characters.html

Posted by Nancy in Menifee, CA ,

I agree with Jill in WV, you know the big long story of Gullberg? I skipped about two pages. I haven’t done that in years, I did find the odd bit dragged o quite a little. Plus if you’re not familiar with Swedish names then it is easy to get lost. I find it harder reading Asian novels though.

Posted by Kit in Yorkshire, UK ,

Yeah – it sure is handy to have a Kindle for #3 because you can search any time on a name and it pulls up all the references. I’ve used it a ton. That being said… I cannot put the dang thing down and have gotten little more than 2-3 hours of sleep for the last three nights!

Posted by Lezli in Northern Rockies ,

After a few hours research…105 named characters appear in Hornet’s Nest. There are 93 with at least one line of dialog,counting the hackers conversation on line and including, for example, Martina Sjogren,caretaker of the safe house. She said one line about “toothbrushes and so on in the chest of drawers outside the bathroom”. There was a whole paragraph describing how she came to be the caretaker. The chart I drew up did make it easier to follow. Not sure where or how to post my hand-written chart. I did it after finishing the book. I too was curious.

Posted by Jerry in Southern Utah ,

Would love to see your chart. It would help me get the characters straight.

Posted by LT in Michigan ,

Thank you, thank you Nancy for finding the list! I kept meaning to make on and as but then would get further and further along and now on page 213 I was very confused with the whole part on Torsten. This list helps a lot.

Posted by Anne in Santa Cruz, Ca ,

How about some sort of “Family Tree” type of chart/visual with branches/areas for Millennium, Sapo, the Unit, Stockholm Police, SMP, Milton Security, Hacker Republic, etc. Each of them have multiple characters with like sounding names. A visual would help keep the good guys from the bad guys for readers whose names sound so much alike.

Posted by Carol in Seattle ,

Well good and bad guys whose names sound so much alike, NOT the readers names.

Posted by C. in Seattle ,

Yes, it’s a bloody nightmare. I had to do what I do with War and Peace, which is kind of only give serious attention to the obviously important characters. Great books though.

Posted by Lee wainwright in seville ,

Here is the best list of characters i have found, hope it helps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(miniseries)

Posted by Erik in Cleveland ,

Unfortunately the Shmoop list is full of spoilers. Even without going to the full bio of Zalachenko you discover the depth of his involvement in the book, and other bios give away key details throughout.

Posted by Nonsuch Ned in Milwaukee ,

Ahh i thought i was the only one that couldn’t keep the names straight. While reading the first and second book I had to add paper clips to keep things together. Too many unnecessary and similar sounding names.

Posted by Mari in New York ,