Review: Fall of Man in Wilmslow by David Lagercrantz tr. George Goulding

Fall of Man in Wilmslow by David Lagercrantz translated by George Goulding, May 2015, 368 pages, MacLehose Press, ISBN: 0857059890

Reviewed by Laura Root.
(Read more of Laura's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

FALL OF MAN IN WILMSLOW by David Lagercrantz (translated by George Goulding) is the first fiction work by this writer translated into English, and was released before the much anticipated THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB. This book takes the form of a fictionalised account of a police investigation into the suicide of noted computer scientist Alan Turing in 1954 a couple of years after his conviction for “gross indecency”. Turing's punishment arising from this conviction was to be coerced into hormone treatment as the only alternative to a prison sentence. The achievements of Turing and the role played by the Bletchley Park codebreakers during the Second World War were to be closely guarded state secrets for decades to come.

The protagonist is the young Detective Constable Leonard Correll. Correll is the first police officer on the scene, called to Alan Turing's house in Cheshire after Turing's body is found by his shocked housekeeper. Turing died in his bed after eating an apple that had been contaminated by cyanide. Correll is a rather unusual policeman. The son of a relatively successful writer and raconteur, Correll feels he had great expectations which were thwarted by the financial ruin of his family and subsequent suicide of his father. Instead of a chance of a Cambridge degree and potential academic career, Correll left his public school, and ended up living and working in the tranquil Cheshire suburban town of Knutsford.

Correll's small official part in the investigation is over after giving evidence at the inquest. But he cannot resist carrying on his own clandestine investigation. Correll looks into Alan's theories and writings and is particularly fascinated by the Liar's Paradox, the conundrum central to Turing's views on logic). While he shares the homophobic prejudices of those he works with, he is impressed by Alan's academic credentials and curious about the nature of his secret war work. This curiosity is fuelled by the interest shown by the Secret Service in Alan's death and possessions left behind. When Correll moves out of library work and starts to seek out Turing's friends and former wartime colleagues in Cambridge, he attracts the attention of dangerous enemies.

Correll is a fully fledged, convincing character, hampered by a sense of social inadequacy coupled with thwarted academic ambitions. But he isn't the submissive pushover he at first appears, gaining confidence as he moves into the academic circles that he aspires to. However the real star character is Turing, and this book contains a wealth of detail about his life and theories. Lagercrantz shows us just how badly Turing was treated by British officialdom despite his vital contribution to the Allies' victory. Scapegoated as part of the McCarthyite witch hunt which meant that even on this side of the Atlantic gay men and women were vulnerable to being scapegoated as likely communist sympathisers. I found FALL OF MAN IN WILMSLOW was very well written, falling more or less in the thriller genre, and that the author had a particularly impressive grasp of the geography and general feel of North West England for a non-British writer. I look forward to reading future books by this author.

Laura Root, October 2015

Review: The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz tr. George Goulding

Today sees the release of book 4 in the Millennium series begun by Stieg Larsson, and now continued by David Lagercrantz in the shape of The Girl in the Spider's Web, translated by George Goulding.

London-based reviewer Craig Sisterson was able to get a copy at midnight and has very kindly shared his review with Euro Crime. This review first appeared on Crime Watch this morning:

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz translated by George Goulding, 448 pages, August 2015, MacLehose Press, ISBN: 0857059998

She's back. After all the waiting, anticipation, and controversy, Lisbeth Salander is back.

It starts with a hand, beating rhythmically on a mattress in an unknown bedroom. Why is the hand beating? Whose hand is it? Whose bedroom? What does it mean?

None of those questions are answered until much later in THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, and by then David Lagercrantz has taken readers on a heck of an absorbing ride.

Let's address the elephant in the room: not everyone will be happy with this novel. Many people in the books world seem to have decided to avoid it or dislike it on principle: that no-one should continue Stieg Larsson's series, the three books of an intended ten that he'd written but never published before his heart attack.

But those who approach THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB with at least a partially open mind will find themselves pleasantly surprised; it's a very good book. It's terrific to see Salander, who is much more than an antisocial goth hacker, back fighting against injustice in a new adventure. In her own inimitable way.

Undoubtedly the creation of Salander was Stieg Larsson's greatest genius in his initial trilogy: while his tales were swirling epics addressing some dark issues simmering below the seemingly perfect surface of Scandinavian society, Salander was the lightning rod that elevated the stories into something more.

In THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB Lagercrantz does a fantastic job at delving deeper into Lisbeth Salander, offering readers more of an insight into this 'grown up version of Pippi Longstocking' (as Larsson considered her). Lagercrantz treads the fine line between providing more texture about an enigmatic character, without losing the mystery and uncertainty that makes them so compelling in the first place.

Salander is the kind of iconic character who doesn't even need to be in the room to have a presence. Like James Bond, Zorro, Robin Hood, or Sherlock Holmes, she casts a shadow over a wider world, lingering in the minds and hearts of those she's touched, friends and foes alike.

Early on in THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, Mikael Blomkvist is battling against money-driven evisceration of Millennium, the magazine he loves, when he meets a potential source in a bar to discuss a story tip. Things are stock-standard, and Blomkvist's eyes are glazing as he listens to chat about technology and corporate espionage, when he - and the reader - is suddenly electrified by the passing mention of a female hacker. From there, the story becomes much more interesting, for Blomkvist and the reader.

As Blomkvist delves deeper, the story gets bigger and bigger. A world-renowned Swedish computer scientist, a verifiable genius, has seemingly abandoned his work and boarded himself up in his home. He wants to talk to Blomkvist, but is attacked before they can meet. His work has disappeared, and the only witness is an autistic child, who know becomes the target of a shadowy criminal organisation.

Lagercrantz does well juggling all the players in this tale, from the driven staff of the NSA, who see spying on everyone as the way to protect their country's interests, to Eastern European gangsters, Swedish authorities, and shadowy figures from Salander's own past. While Salander and Blomkvist are the stars, there is a broad cast of fascinating cast of characters who add texture and intrigue - and Lagercrantz does an elegant job keeping THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB building then racing along rather than becoming convoluted.

For those who love Scandinavian crime for the way it delves into social and personal issues, there is plenty of that on offer in the fourth Salander book, from issues of privacy, what the public is entitled to know, to the various ways technology can be used and abused, the changing face of the media, and much more.

For me however, it is the evocation of Salander, who is one of the finest characters created in contemporary fiction, which is the real highlight of THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB. Much like Christopher Nolan did with his tremendous re-imagining of Batman, Lagercrantz delves deeper into Lisbeth while keeping her very much who she is. We see more and understand more, but remain fascinated, intrigued, and unsure.

And when the final page came, I was no longer doubtful of whether the books should be continued or not. In fact, I am very much hoping that we will see more from Lagercrantz, Blomkvist and Salander in future.

Craig Sisterson
August 2015