The Millennium trilogy, a landmark in crime fiction, comes to a satisfying end with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It's clear now that Stieg Larsson had settled on putting the story of the ferocious feminist avenger Lisbeth Salander front and center in his series of books prior to his death.

Lots of unpronounceable (to Americans) Swedish names and places. Get over it.

The books demand being read in order. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first book, shows how Salander, a superhacker, and her crime-fighting partner, Mikael Blomqvist, an investigative journalist, first teamed up. The plot, involving finding a missing person and taking down a crooked financier, is all tied up at the end. It is virtually a stand-alone novel. But be aware that the second novel contains a major spoiler to the first novel, so read them in order.

The second novel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and Hornet's Nest are virtually one book told in two parts. In fact, Fire ends with a cliffhanger and Hornet's Nest begins the very moment the previous novel ended.

Hornet's Nest begins with Salander in a coma in the hospital with a bullet in her brain. She awakens on page 49 and her devoted reader fans are relieved to see she is immediately pissed off.

I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that this book tells Salander's entire back story. Her whole life she has been a pawn in the hands of a corrupt group of men within the Swedish secret service. Everyone gets what's coming to them, and the fate of the loathsome Dr. Teleborian is most gratifying.

Most of the book describes the intrigue leading up to Salander's trial for attempted murder. There is surveillance, break-ins, phone taps, interrogations, computer hacking, stolen documents, conspiracies, etc. Salander is in custody almost the entire book, but she eventually jumps into the action when she is clandestinely slipped a computer. Her big moment involves a violent locked-room fight at the end that settles a major score.

At 600 pages, this book could have used some trimming. Larsson elaborately introduces characters that he clearly intended to be staple characters in subsequent books -- books we will not see. This is a British translation, so we get words like "vouchsafed" and "kerb." I wonder if the American publication is being delayed because of the need to make an American translation.

Larsson is clearly an ardent male feminist and feminist themes run through all three books, especially rage against the mistreatment of women and the need for all people to be able to express their sexuality openly and, if necessary, unconventionally. Salander herself is bisexual and Erika Berger, a major character, has an "open" arrangement with her husband. Larsson makes a point, though, at drawing the line at child porn.

Lisbeth, we're going to miss not seeing more of your adventures. Your fierce determination, native intelligence and utter fearlessness made you triumphant over the crass and cowardly male forces arrayed against you. You were misunderstood, tormented and underestimated your whole life. But Stieg Larsson, who created you, lived long enough to give you your much-deserved payback. At the end, you're battered, but unbowed.

You go, girl.