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.”

Review Roundup: Abbott, Baylis, Belfoure, Griffiths, Indridason, Jordan, Lagercrantz, Lang, Lironi, MacLeod, Pembrey, Spencer, Thomas

Here are thirteen reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

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 Stranger Child by Rachel Abbott;


Lynn Harvey reviews M H Baylis's Black Day at the Bosphorus Cafe;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths, set in Norfolk;

Michelle also reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Oblivion tr. Victoria Cribb;


Amanda also reviews Black List by Will Jordan;

Laura Root reviews David Lagercrantz's Fall of Man in Wilmslow tr. George Goulding;


Rich Westwood reviews J A Lang's Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle, set in the Cotswolds;

Amanda also reviews Oh Marina Girl by Graham Lironi;

Ewa Sherman reviews Murder in Malmo by Torquil MacLeod;

Ewa also reviews Daniel Pembrey's The Harbour Master (books 1 - 3), set in Amsterdam;

Terry also reviews Sally Spencer's Supping with the Devil

as well as Ugly Bus by Mike Thomas.


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

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 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

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!