Millennium Book V News

I've just received the following news from MacLehose Press regarding the latest entry in the Stieg Larsson "Girl" series, continued by David Lagercrantz:

Swedish publishers Norstedts today revealed their title and cover for the fifth instalment in the Millennium series created by Stieg Larsson. Mannen Som Sökte Sin Skugga or The Man Who Hunted/Chased His Shadow is written by David Lagercrantz who also penned book four, The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Norstedts revealed the information on David Lagercrantz’s new Instagram account @davidlagercrantz.

Previous Swedish titles for the series translate as:
Men who Hate Women
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Castles in the Sky
What Doesn’t Kill You

MacLehose Press will reveal the English language title for the novel, which will be published worldwide on 7 September 2017, shortly.

A short Q&A with David Lagercrantz:

David Lagercrantz, how did the attention around The Girl in the Spider’s Web affect you?
“I couldn’t have imagined what effect the news about an upcoming fourth novel in the Millennium series would have. I thought people would shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives. Instead, Swedish and international media went half crazy and the whole thing just escalated. Sure, I fantasized that the novel would become a success; I am after all a hopeless dreamer. When I find things most difficult, I dream of triumphs, and most often I am disappointed. But this time I was amazed by the response.”

How did you find the motivation to write another book in the series?
“Stieg Larsson created a fantastic universe that I feel continuously inspired by. On holiday with my family an idea struck me, and gave me the same fever that I lived with when I wrote The Girl in the Spider’s Web. It is not so great for my sleep and my neurosis, but it is definitely good for my writing.”

Free & Cheap Scandi Ebooks

Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tr. Reg Keeland is currently free on UK Kindle and UK Kobo.


(The Girl Who Played with Fire is 99p on UK Kindle.)

Jorn Lier Horst's Ordeal tr. Anne Bruce, released today, is currently £1.00 on UK Kindle.

(Dregs and Closed for Winter are currently 98p each on UK Kindle.)

Review Roundup: Collard, Lagercrantz, Larsson, London, Nicol, Palliser, Reading

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time*. With the exception of Stieg Larsson, all these authors are making their first appearance in the review section. The Stieg Larsson reviews are reposts of Maxine's original reviews but I have included the recent paperback cover.

*I am trialling a new approach at the moment in that all reviews will appear on the Euro Crime blog rather than being separate files as part of the Euro Crime website. I feel this will give the reviews more exposure and make them more findable in a search engine. The reviews will usually appear daily ie Monday to Friday, with occasional weekend postings, and roundups will appear on Sundays (or Bank Holidays!). The website will continue with bibliographies etc, the only change is that the reviews will be on the blog.

I'd be interested in any comments about this new approach.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Terry Halligan reviews The Devil's Assassin by Paul Fraser Collard which features swashbuckling hero, Jack Lark;

The big release last week was David Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web tr. George Goulding which is a sequel to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Review copies were released on the day of publication (UK) and Craig Sisterson kindly shared his review with Euro Crime the same day;

To remind ourselves of Stieg Larsson's original trilogy, I reposted Maxine's reviews of:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo;




The Girl Who Played With Fire

and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

which were all translated by Reg Keeland.

I continue my US cozy review feature with Criminal Confections by Colette London, which introduces a chocolate whisperer as amateur sleuth;

Going from cozy to noir, Lynn Harvey reviews Mike Nicol's Power Play, a Cape Town thriller inspired by Titus Andronicus;

Susan White reviews Charles Palliser's Victorian-styled The Unburied

and Ewa Sherman reviews Mario Reading's The Templar Inheritance.


Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, along with releases by year.

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

Review Redux: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson tr. Reg Keeland

To celebrate the publication on Thursday of the new "Lisbeth Salander" book, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz translated by George Goulding, I have been reposting Maxine's reviews of the original trilogy by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, concluding today with:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, 720 pages, June 2015, MacLehose Press; Reissue edition.

The long-awaited final part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy reaches an English-language readership in 2009, five years after its first publication in Sweden. And it is certainly worth the wait. The story of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist (after earlier hints, here explicitly adult versions of Astrid Lindgren's children's characters Pippi Longstocking and Kalle Blomqvist), pulls you right in on page 1, and is terrifically difficult to leave behind on page 600, especially as so many aspects of their stories (particularly Lisbeth's) have not begun to be explored - and never will be, owning to the sad early death of the author.

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST begins directly after the dramatic finale of THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the first 100 pages reflecting the confusion of deaths, illnesses, attacks and conspiracy that culminated in the confrontations at Gosseberga. Most of these 100 pages take place in hospital where Lisbeth lies critically injured, where Zalachenko, her father, is also severely wounded, and where the police, security personnel and other vultures are circling round the pair. Anyone who has not read the previous two books will probably find this long introduction almost incomprehensible in its details - those who have read the predecessors will need good memories but will have no difficulty being drawn into Lisbeth's predicament as she lies paralysed in the knowledge that her father, lying in a nearby room down the corridor, is trying to finish his malign task - while other forces are keen to try her, label her as insane and send her back to the secure institution where she spent her unhappy adolescence - assuming she survives her terrible injuries.

Next, the canvas of the book expands to a compelling history of Swedish politics post-1964, consciously continuing from the social analysis of the Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo Martin Beck series, charting the failures of Swedish democracy from within the security forces by the formation of the SSA, an unofficial secret police within the official secret police (Sapo), known only to one or two people in the country. Real and fictitious events and characters are seamlessly juxtaposed, though there's an essential brief glossary to help the non-Swedish reader grasp the non-fictional essentials.

In this novel, SSA consists of a small, secret core of very hard-liners, determined to uphold and protect what its members consider to be the country's best interests. Primarily, it seems, this task has consisted of containing Zalachenko, the most important Soviet defector to the West ever. The grey men of the SSA have created a new identity for him and over the years have given him free rein and protected him from the consequences of his criminal activities and gross abuse of his wife.

This army of old men from another time come together in the realization that the Zalachenko affair is likely to blow wide open once he and his daughter Lisbeth are able to communicate with the authorities. Although they have lost one of their main means of controlling Lisbeth (how she disposed of her guardian is part of the plot of book 2), they enlist the help of psychiatrist Peter Taleborian, the man who locked Lisbeth away after her pyrotechnic actions when aged 12, and whom she has good reason to hate. Only Dr Jonasson, the surgeon who is currently caring for Lisbeth, seems to stand between her and the strong forces who want her silenced.

The book bursts into real life after this long prologue, history and setting-of-scene, when an odd coalition including Mikael, Lisbeth and her hackers' group form the online ‘knights of the idiotic table' in their first real act of striking back. Mikael begins to dig into the story of Zalachencko, gradually becoming to suspect the existence of ‘The Section', as he calls what the reader knows to be SSA. When a crucial report is stolen from his apartment, he uses this circumstance to find out more than the perpetrators had bargained for, and to strike back at them, in a clever game of double bluff.

In THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST, Lisbeth (who until the final chapters is a relatively insubstantial figure in the novel) serves as an allegory for Sweden itself - both the woman and the country have been betrayed over many years by secret allegiances of people bound together by delusions and evil impulses. Just as the young Lisbeth is wrongly diagnosed with mental illness and incarcerated in an isolation cell, so the young Swedish democracy is betrayed by people whose actions can only be explained by Mikael as being like those who have a mental illness and have separated themselves from normal society (p 475). Mikael is as much driven by his journalistic, crusading need to expose political corruption as his friendship and gratitude to Lisbeth compel him to expose the corruption that is continuing to threaten her by this coalition of "men who hate women".

Yet the novel is not a mere spy thriller - what gives it such massive heart are the characters - Mikael, Erica, the Millennium journalists, the Armansky operation, the police, Sapo agents, asylum seekers and others who give the novel such life - and the immense amount of absorbing, authentic details - of the workings of a newspaper office, a secret police organisation, computer hacking, police operations, investigative journalism, the security business, the race to publish Mikael's discoveries, and far more than can be covered in this review - a rich, dense and compelling context for the gradual uncovering of Lisbeth's story, cumulating in her trial where the main players take turns on centre stage.

There are certainly gaps in this book. One glaring weakness is that we never know why Zalachenko was so useful to the SSA, and why he continued to be so uniquely valuable for so long after he defected. We learn little of his criminal empire. Lisbeth, the very core of the trilogy, plays a passive role for almost all of the book. Some plot lines, for example the police search for the cop-killer Niedermann, are never developed. Other stories are hinted at but never told - we can only imagine that the author intended to pick those up in future books.

The Millennium Trilogy is a fantastically exciting and original set of books, admittedly with flaws, but with a great breadth and intelligence - of the characters as well as of the story - and with an ability to draw the reader in to an exciting narrative so that one is lost in the book, not knowing whether to turn the pages rapidly to find out what happens next, or to turn them slowly to prolong the totally mesmerising read, so ably conveyed to English readers by the translator, Reg Keeland.

Maxine Clarke, England
October 2009

Review Redux: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson tr. Reg Keeland

To celebrate the publication on Thursday of the new "Lisbeth Salander" book, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz translated by George Goulding, I am reposting Maxine's reviews of the original trilogy by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, continuing today with:

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, 576 pages, June 2015, MacLehose Press; Reissue edition.

This long book is the second in the Millennium Trilogy, the first of which, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, introduced the reader to Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, a campaigning journalist. It is a very exciting read, and I'm eager to read the final volume.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE is in some senses two books. The first 200 pages is an extensive prologue telling the story of Lisbeth, previously a tantalisingly insubstantial figure: we learn quite a lot of her back-story, as some of the previous hints about her past are filled in (including a rather gruesome prologue chapter). At the same time, we learn that she has been travelling the world since the end of the first book, arriving in Grenada at the start of this one, where she has a brief affair, witnesses an attempted murder during a freak tornado, and sets out to solve Fermat's last theorem without the aid of a computer program. The rest of the book - in itself a hefty 400 pages, shifts to Sweden and ignores most of the Grenadan events. Perhaps some of them will be picked up in book three. Otherwise, I'm not sure of their point.

What follows is mostly a straight police procedural, at the same time revealing more of Lisbeth's history. Soon after she returns to Stockholm and sets herself up in an apartment that is off the official radar, three brutal murders occur on one night. Lisbeth, the only apparent link between all the victims, is the prime suspect and becomes the focus of a national police hunt. She has suffered terribly in her life - the reader by now knows some, but not all, of this background - and her treatment by the media is a horrible, insensitive parallel of her earlier abuse by those who should have cared for her - teachers, doctors, guardians and 'friends'. Lisbeth becomes a fugitive, yet refuses to be victimised by her ordeal. She is not only determined to find out the identity of the killer(s), but also, as she becomes more aware of how the crimes are linked to her, goes onto the attack to deal with the situation on her own. She has long since learned not to trust institutions such as the police and the law.

In parallel with Lisbeth's story, Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, is also investigating the murders. Two of the victims were colleagues and friends of his, and he's convinced that their deaths are related to the work they were doing in uncovering a massive scandal of prostitution and drug trafficking between Russia, Eastern Europe and Sweden. Although Lisbeth has rejected him as a lover and will not contact him, Blomkvist is convinced that she is innocent. Therefore, in contrast to the police investigation, which is focused solely on finding Lisbeth and convicting her, he attempts to uncover other motives for the crime.

The book is packed with incident, thrills, characters, rich details and plot revelations. Because Stieg Larsson is juggling stories about Millennium (the publication and its journalists), the international sex trade, an investigation agency, evil bikers, and the police investigation, as well as Lisbeth's associates and past, which itself contains several strong and moving subplots, the pace never lets up, emotions are intense, and there are no boring moments as, in J K Rowling style, the author gradually reveals more of the intention of his triptych. However, there are plenty of flaws - too often, people remember a crucial fact that they'd forgotten previously (one such, Blomkvist's discovery in his kitchen that leads into the final section, is truly clunky - and this is not the only clumsy device used); Lisbeth can find out anything she wants via magic, that is her (unexplained) hacking skills and her international geeks' undercover network. People often see each other by coincidence (Blomkvist and Lisbeth spot each other several times before they communicate directly), and there are quite a few cliches in terms of criminal masterminds, spooks and an evil Russian thug who is huge and feels no pain.

There is also a strong element of male wish-fulfilment running through the book. Lisbeth is almost a Modesty Blaise-like figure at times, having her breasts enlarged, living off junk food yet remaining "anorexically thin" (as we are often reminded), and enjoying lusty sex with men and women. The Millennium journalists are similarly idealised, being portrayed as liberal-thinking, high on integrity and very highly sexed. On the other hand, most of the other men in the book are either decent enough yet bland (the police chief) or pure evil - rapists, abductors, child abusers and "men who hate women" to name but a few of the types in the pages. Most of these aspects add to the overall excitement, but they also create a slightly comic-book atmosphere.

Nevertheless, despite these flaws (some of which the author might have revised before publication had he lived) this book is truly powerful. The criminal investigation turns out to be directly related to the events in Lisbeth's horrific past, and the way in which old events are gradually revealed in order to explain how the crimes occurred is very cleverly done, with a stunning, emotionally draining climax.

Although there is a resolution of sorts, there are a great many loose ends. It remains to be seen whether the third book will address these, in particular the mystery of Lisbeth's sister as well as the wider issues of the corruption of the Swedish "special services" and of the sex/drug trade. As things stand, we are left on a cliffhanger, with little closure in the characters' life-stories or on the wider issues that were being addressed by two of the murdered people. A perfect recipe for a third, and final, instalment.

Maxine Clarke, England
January 2009

Review Redux: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson tr. Reg Keeland

To celebrate the publication on Thursday of the new "Lisbeth Salander" book, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz translated by George Goulding, I will be reposting Maxine's reviews of the original trilogy by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, starting today with:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland, 544 pages, June 2015, MacLehose Press; Reissue edition.

Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist in Sweden who, as publisher and co-owner of the independent magazine Millennium, is able to publish hard-hitting investigations into the shady dealings of the country's richest companies. He goes too far, however, in his story about the crooked but enormously wealthy financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Wennerstrom sues Blomkvist for libel, Blomkvist loses and is sentenced to a few months in jail. Almost worse than the sentence is the fact that Millennium has lost credibility, not to mention advertising revenue, and its future is in jeopardy.

After Blomkvist's sentence, he and his on-off lover, fellow publisher Erika Berger, decide the best way to ensure the magazine's survival is for Mikael to take a year's leave of absence, during which time he will serve his jail sentence (clearly a very civilized procedure in Sweden). His confidence shaken by his experiences, Mikael is astonished to be summoned by Herr Frode, a lawyer, to meet the reclusive, wealthy Henrik Vanger, who has been following the case and who has a proposition for him.

Vanger is one of the oldest members of a family dynasty, of a completely different hue from Wennerstrom both personally and in business philosophy. However, the old man is haunted by a dreadful event in the 1970s, when his great-niece Harriet, then 16, vanished on the eve of the traditional annual gathering at the island where the old man and most family members live. The subsequent investigation of the disappearance was severely hampered by an road accident on the bridge connecting the island to the mainland: despite the most thorough investigation possible over the intervening years by both the police and her distraught great-uncle, the mystery of Harriet's disappearance was never solved, so it has been concluded by all that she had died. Nevertheless, every year on his birthday, the old man receives a single flower in a frame, a bitter-sweet memory of the birthday presents Harriet used to give him. Henrik cannot rest until he has discovered who is sending this taunting message, which he is convinced will lead him to Harriet's murderer.

Initially refusing Vanger's commission, Mikael changes his mind when he learns that not only will he be paid for his work but that Henrik will provide him with evidence to convict Wennerstrom - and by so doing will ensure the survival of Millennium. The two men agree that Mikael will live on the island inhabited by the various Vanger family members and, as cover, will write a biography of the family. In reality, however, he will be poring over old documents and questioning anyone who will speak to him to try to cast new light on the tragedy of Harriet's disappearance.

It does not take Mikael long to discover that he has been the subject of a covert surveillance himself to determine to Vanger's satisfaction his own suitability for the job. Via Vanger's lawyer Frode (an attractive if minor character), he soon discovers who is responsible: Dragan Armansky's investigative agency, specifically a highly unlikely operative called Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is an emaciated young woman, a drop-out from society, whose mother is in an institution and does not know her daughter. Lisbeth has a long history of childhood rebellion and refusal to conform, has been labelled dangerous by assortments of social workers, and is a ward of court unable to control her own finances or manage her own life apart from a shadowy existence with alternative, drop-out associates. She does, however, have amazing computer skills, and so is employed on a freelance basis by Dragan, who has mixed feelings for the young woman - she of the titular dragon tattoo.

Aided by Lisbeth, Mikael becomes increasingly absorbed in the biography, living in an isolated guest cabin on the island and digging into old photographs, befriending the local cafe owner, and gradually working through Henrik's archives, in the process befriending the old man, a poignant character. Mikael pieces together the complicated Vanger family - thankfully, the reader is helped by a family tree and a table (but in my edition, no map of the island, which would have helped) - to try to work out who might have had a motive and the opportunity to kill Harriet and dispose so completely of her body. He undergoes his prison sentence, a relief from his daily worries, but after that his investigation becomes bogged down - until a series of dramatic events provide him with a breakthrough of sorts.

In the meantime, we learn more about Lisbeth and her life, as well as her shocking persecution by her guardian and the revenge she enacts. Her character is intended to show us how a supposedly liberal and caring society can utterly fail someone who has a mild condition (Mikael immediately diagnoses her as having Asperger's), and how she and others like her can "slip through the cracks" into a life of abuse and poverty. First Dragan and than Mikael hold out a hand of help - in Mikael's case, he does not expect anything from her, so Lisbeth gradually comes to trust and even to love him.

Mikael and Lisbeth work together to solve the awful mystery of Harriet's disappearance - and it is, indeed, truly awful. Although the book is extremely leisurely (most of it is taken up with Mikael's researches into the Vanger history), the pace picks up at the end as all the threads come together in a suspenseful conclusion: Harriet's fate, the future of Millennium, Wennerstrom's power, the Vanger secret - and the shadow of a Nazi and racist past. Taken together with the story of Lisbeth, as yet incomplete as this is the first in a trilogy, the whole has a haunting power. Despite its length, and the fact that most of the Vangers encountered by Mikael are two dimensional, I very much enjoyed this powerful book which combines a good story with haunting characters and a crusading message.

The book is the latest in a fine tradition of Swedish fiction begun in the 1960s by Maj Stowall and Per Wahloo in their Martin Beck series, and continued by Henning Mankell and other excellent authors. THE GIRL IN THE DRAGON TATTOO is in the same vein as two other recent Swedish books: the superb PARADISE, by Liza Marklund, which covers similar themes of investigative journalism, financial mismanagement and racist violence against women (particularly immigrants) and Asa Larsson's SUN STORM, an intense story about a young woman unable to function in society after being ostracised by her family and community for her alleged rebellion. All three of these sad stories resonate in the mind long after the last page has been turned.

Maxine Clarke, England
January 2008

Plot News: The Girl in the Spider's Web

Some details have been announced about the plot of The Girl in the Spider's Web which is being published on 27 August. From the press release:

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB

David Lagercrantz

A continuation of the series by Stieg Larsson

Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding

Published by MacLehose Press in hardback on 27 August 2015 at £19.99

Also available as an e-book

So far, with a global embargo in place, very few details of the much-anticipated return of Lisbeth Salander have been revealed.

Now MacLehose Press is releasing key details of the plot to whet the appetite of the 15 million readers in the U.K. who bought the trilogy.

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo: Lisbeth Salander,

uncompromising misfit, genius hacker.

He is the crusading journalist: Mikael Blomkvist,

dedicated to exposing corruption and abuse.

They have not been in touch for some time.

Then Blomkvist is contacted by renowned Swedish scientist Professor Balder. Warned that his life is in danger, but more concerned for his son’s well-being, Balder wants Millennium to publish his story – and it is a terrifying one. Säpo, Sweden’s security police, have offered him protection, but what Balder hopes for is to preserve his life’s work ‒ by going public.

More interesting to Blomkvist than Balder’s world-leading advances in Artificial Intelligence, is news that the professor had been working with a superhacker, a girl with a dragon tattoo.

Salander is busy with an agenda of her own. Using her old codename Wasp, she has been trying to hack into the American National Security Agency - a lunacy driven by vengeance, and fraught with every possible consequence.

Like Balder, she is a target of ruthless cyber gangsters who call themselves the Spiders. The violent unscrupulousness of this criminal conspiracy will very soon bring terror to the snowbound streets of Stockholm, to the Millennium team ‒ and to Blomkvist and Salander themselves. 

The adrenaline-charged, brilliantly intricate and utterly absorbing narrative of The Girl in the Spider’s Web is inspired by Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. The duo who thrilled millions of readers across the world are back.

Millennium 4 : The Girl in the Spider's Web

Released on 27 August 2015, part four of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series: The Girl in the Spider's Web written by David Lagercrantz:

More in The Guardian.

Millennium 4 gets an August release date

Following on from the announcement just over a year ago that there was to be a follow-up to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, further details are now available - though not many!:

From The Bookseller:

The sequel to late author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy will go on sale in the UK in August.

The book, which is entitled That Which Does Not Kill in Swedish, was penned by David Lagercrantz and will go on sale in at least 35 countries, said Swedish publisher Norstedts.

A spokesperson for Larsson’s UK publisher Quercus said it will publish the book on the 27th August with a different title. No proofs or early copies will be released.

The return of Lisbeth Salander...in book 4

I got in late last night so have only just seen this news in the MacLehose newsletter: a new Salander/Blomkvist title is to be written by David Lagercrantz and published in 2015:

David Lagercrantz writes a fourth book in the Millennium series

Stieg Larsson's Millennium books have sold more than 75 million copies in 50 countries, making it one of the most successful book series in modern times.


Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist and the universe that Stieg Larsson created around Millennium, has engaged readers worldwide. Norstedts has today signed an agreement with David Lagercrantz, who has taken on the challenging task of writing a fourth, independent continuation of the Millennium Series.

David Lagercrantz has written several novels and non-fiction books. He has in his writing constantly sought out odd characters and complex geniuses. In 2011, I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic was published, one of the most successful Swedish books in recent years and a success worldwide.

In August 2015, exactly 10 years since Norstedts published Män som hatar kvinnor [in English The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo], the fourth part in the Millennium series will be published.


Linda Altrov Berg, the rights director of Norstedts, adds this coda, addressed to the worldwide publishers of Stieg Larsson:

Over the years we have been asked if there will ever be more books in the Millennium series. The question is not unexpected, as Stieg’s story and his books have engaged millions of readers all over the world.

Now we can finally answer that question.

I am happy to announce that Norstedts and Moggliden, the Stieg Larsson estate, recently decided to let the story about Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist continue. Swedish author David Lagercrantz will write an entirely new story based on Stieg Larsson's universe and characters. Ten years after Norstedts first published Män som hatar kvinnor by the unknown author Stieg Larsson, we will launch the fourth Millennium book.

Lagercrantz has written several books and has also worked as a journalist. His critically acclaimed book I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been one of the best-selling Swedish titles of recent years, and this fall it was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in the UK. In Sweden, the book was shortlisted for the August Prize and rights have been sold to close to 20 languages. Lagercrantz lives on Södermalm in Stockholm, in the same neighborhood where much of the action in the Millennium Trilogy is set. In my opinion, this together with the fact that he has a long experience from major newspapers make him the perfect choice.

Norstedts will publish Millennium #4 in August 2015. We already have an agreement in place for world English rights with MacLehose Press/Quercus, and they aim for simultaneous publication.

We are all thrilled and look forward to sharing an adventure with you once again!

Publishing News: Swedish Crime Short Story Collection

From the press release at Booktrade, details of an upcoming Swedish short story collection which includes an entry from Stieg Larsson:

Head of Zeus announced that they will be the UK publishers of the much-talked about anthology of Swedish crime stories, A Darker Shade, edited by John-Henri Holmberg.

A landmark anthology, this will be the first collection of Swedish crime stories translated into English. It features unpublished fiction from international phenomenon Stieg Larsson and his long-term partner Eva Gabrielson as well as bestsellers Henning Mankell, Per Wahloo, Maj Sjowall and more.

Editor Holmberg is a writer, editor and translator and was a close personal friend of Larsson whom he met through their shared love of science fiction and crime fiction.

Editorial Director Laura Palmer said 'This is a truly exciting project. Not only is it the first English anthology of the hugely popular genre of Nordic Noir but it contains never-before-published stories from Henning Mankell, Per Wahloo and – the cherry on the cake – Stieg Larsson.'

Head of Zeus will publish on 7th January 2013 as part of the worldwide release. The book will be strictly embargoed until publication.

Graphic Novel of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Last year I mentioned that Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy would be turned into graphic novels. Each book will be made into two graphic novels (the same has happened with Twilight) and the first part of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be out in November.

A special preview edition has been released, showing a few of the pages (drawings but no words) and I was able to download it at Edelweiss.

From Vertigo: "Crime author Denise Mina will write the book, with the cover image created by Lee Bermejo and art from Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti."

Stieg Larsson: The Expo Files

The Expo Files is a collection of some of Stieg Larsson's essays and articles, edited by Daniel Poohl, translated by Laurie Thompson and with an introduction by Tariq Ali. It's published next week by MacLehose Press:

Official Blurb: Now almost exclusively known as the author of the best-selling Trilogy, as a professional journalist Stieg Larsson was an untiring crusader for democracy and equality. As a reporter and editor-in-chief on the journal Expo he researched the extreme right both in Sweden and at an international level. Collected here for the first time are essays and articles on right-wing extremism and racism, on violence against women and women's rights, on homophobia and honour killings. Included also is an account written for Vagabond magazine of his travels aboard the Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to Beijing.

His most important writings - perceptive, learned and committed texts - illustrate the breadth of his journalistic and political activities in connection with matters that were closest to his heart, and to which he devoted his life.

Despite death threats and financial difficulties, Larsson never ceased to fight for and write about his most firmly held principles; it was his commitment to these which gave his best-selling novels their explosive force.

More Ways to Own the Millennium Trilogy

News of two new editions of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy have come my way this week. Firstly a press release from MacLehose/Quercus about this luxury edition which comes with a doodle:

MacLehose Press are delighted to announce that a special, leather and stud bound, one-off boxed set edition of the MILLENNIUM TRILOGY will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on the 15th Dec to help raise money for Stieg Larsson’s magazine, Expo.


The Boxed set includes the letter of rejection from the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism in Stockholm to applicant 493 [Stieg Larsson] and features a charming doodle by Stieg Larsson on the back of the letter.

Part of the letter is visible in this recent Guardian article.

You can read the whole Sotherby's press release (pdf) on the Euro Crime website.

The second bit of news comes from Publishers Weekly regarding graphic novel versions of the three books:

Working in conjunction with the estate of Stieg Larsson and the Hedlund Literary Agency, DC Entertainment and its Vertigo imprint will adapt Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy novels—the books have sold more than 60 million copies— into a series of graphic novels. Each book in the trilogy will be adapted into two graphic novel volumes available in print and digital formats. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel volumes will be released in 2012 and graphic adaptations of The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nests will be released in 2014.

Dan DiDio, copublisher of DC Entertaiment, parent company of DC Comics/Vertigo, said, “The intricate characters and stories Larsson created in the Millennium Trilogy are a perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways.”

“Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page,” said Joakim Larsson, younger brother of the journalist and novelist, who died in 2004.

And finally, here's the jacket of the US-film-tie-in edition which will be available from 27 October, the film is out 26 December:

Free Audio Book of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A very kind blog follower has just let me know that The Guardian's free audio book download on Saturday was Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The print edition is reviewed here on Euro Crime.

This is a free download of the abridged edition read by Martin Wenner (nb. 7hrs 26 compared to 18hrs 15m for the unabridged).

The offer is here but you've only got until 12 September.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - cover opinions

Continuing my series of cover opinions about the 2010 International Dagger shortlist, this time it's the turn of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson, tr. Reg Keeland.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Stieg Larsson? (Note the location of the apostrophe in each case...)

(I've had a number of people come into the library having read #3 first and then reserving the first two.)

Here is the Euro Crime review by Maxine of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.












Here is an article on the process behind the design of the US cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which is in a similar vein to the above.

More on Stieg Larsson

I picked up a copy of the Quercus catalogue today at the London Book Fair and it has the following publications for the autumn this year relating to Stieg Larsson. For around £50 - a boxed set of the Millennium Trilogy, tr. Reg Keeland, "with an accompanying volume containing background material":

Revised hardback editions, with maps, of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, plus original material.

The fourth volume includes an essay by Eva Gedin, Larsson's publisher, on working with the author; an email correspondence between Larsson and Eva Gedin; an essay by John-Henri Holmberg, placing Stieg Larsson in the context of the resurgence of Scandinavian crime writing; a poster of the best jackets of the Millennium Trilogy from around the world; maps and photographs.

and also Stieg Larsson, My Friend by Kurdo Baksi, tr. Laurie Thompson:

Five years after his death, Stieg Larsson is best known as the author of the Millennium Trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a crucial protagonist in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden, and one of the founders of the anti-facist magazine Expo. Kurdo Baksi first met Larsson in 1992; it was the beginning of an intense friendship, and a fruitful but challenging working relationship.

In this candid and rounded memoir, Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson's fans have already asked, about his upbringing; the recurring death threats; his insomnia and his vices; his feminism - so evident in his books - and his dogmatism. What was he like as a colleague? Who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters (Baksi is one of the few who appears in the trilogy as himself)? Who was Lisbeth Salander?

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy - on audio

The final part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, came out on audio book this month. All three books are now available as a set for £65 from Whole Story Audio Books.

(Shame about the prominent typo)

The books are narrated by Saul Reichlin.

Over at Petrona, Maxine splendidly summarises the three books.

New Review: Stieg Larsson and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Rarely has a book been so anticipated in the crime fiction world: the return of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist in the final part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. For my part, these books are to be savoured if at all possible and so I am extremely grateful that Maxine has taken up the challenge of the short deadline, (the book was embargoed until a few days before the publishing date), to read and review Millennium 3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest which was released on 1 October in the UK.

Stieg Larsson has been all over the papers these last few days:

The Independent asks: What was the secret of Stieg Larsson's extraordinary success?

and there have been recent profiles in The Times and The Telegraph.

plus reviews of Hornets' Nest in the papers:

Express

The Guardian

The Times 1 and 2.

So what does Maxine say about it..well, you can now read her review here.

She has previously reviewed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Reg Keeland who has translated all three books, has his own blog here.

Even though the series is sadly now finished, there are the films to look forward to and Maxine and I were not disappointed with the filmed version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which we saw a few weeks ago.