'The Girl in the Spider's Web' - David Lagercrantz

Another book with a story behind it, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz is shrouded in controversy. It is a continuation of the hugely popular Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larrson, a man who was not unfamiliar with controversy himself. Born in Västerbotten, Sweden, he was raised by his grandparents. His writing career is said to have started when he was given a typewriter for his twelfth birthday, and after his grandfather was imprisoned in a work camp for his anti-fascism, Stieg became determined to fight against censorship and inequalities, becoming one of the founders of Expo, an anti-fascism magazine. His life and that of his long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson was constantly threatened by right-wing violence, and they were forced to take extreme measures to keep themselves safe,  never being seen together outside the house. Despite these measures, he died suddenly at the age of 50 from natural causes, though there continue to be conspiracy theories about murder surrounding his death.

Fortunately for his now innumerable fans, Larrson had already sent all three books of the Millennium series to the publisher; in fact, he finished two of them and had started the third before even contacting a publisher. Unfortunately for him, he died before any of them were released and he never got to see the global success of his novels and the hype that they created. All three were turned into Swedish films, and the first of the book trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), has also been turned into a Hollywood film. Larsson's The Girl who Played with Fire (2006) was released in the UK in 2009 and shot straight to number one in the hardback chart, the first translated novel to do so at the time. The third and final book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2007), had a similar reception, and the trilogy has won numerous awards.

It is no surprise that another author would want to continue on this success. David Lagercrantz, a Swedish journalist and author, is known predominantly for his biographies. A crime writer until 1993, he published his first book in 1997, a biography on Swedish adventurer Göran Kropp. In 2000, he followed this with a biography on Håkan Lans, before turning his attentions to fiction with a novel about British mathematician Alan Turing entitled Fall of Man in Wilmslow. Perhaps his most popular book before his most recent is I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, an autobiography of the footballer which Lagercrantz was the ghostwriter of. 

The Girl in the Spider's Web, released this year, is his first of its kind. In my opinion, it should be taken as a separate book, and therefore a separate story, entirely. I have read many a synopsis of the novel before engaging in it, reading along the lines of 'crime fighting duo reunited', but Mikael and Lisbeth are no Batman and Robin - far from it! The Millennium trilogy had me hooked from the start, and I devoted every spare second I had to reading it. The story was admirably intelligent and complex, and reading the last was overwhelmingly disappointing in that you knew there would never be another. At the time, there were rumours of half-finished manuscripts that Gabrielsson would complete, but nothing ever came from them. Lagercrantz has made the fourth book a reality, but he had a lot to live up to. 

The fourth book in the series sees advanced computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist embroiled in the same murder mystery. Blomkvist is in a career rut, bored of the breaking news stories that he used to thrive on. Out of the blue, he is contacted by Frans Balder, a renowned scientist making advanced developments in Artificial Intelligence. Coincidentally, Balder had also been in touch with Salander to find out how his previous work had been stolen and sold on to a video game developer. He is informed by Säpo, the Swedish security police, that his life is in danger, and in the hope of protecting his autistic son, Balder wants to tell his story to Blomkvist so that it will be published in Millennium magazine. However, a tragedy occurs that leaves his savant son August's life in danger, along with Blomkvists's and Salander's, who is also attempting to track down a gang of hackers calling themselves the Spiders whom she believes to have connections to her monstrous late father and she wants her revenge.

Lagercrantz has actually surpassed my expectations with this novel. I held Stieg Larrson in such high regard that I didn't believe anyone could take over from him, but this latest addition to the series is a pleasant surprise, and I was just as addicted to this novel as the first three. I know I said that I would treat this is as a separate novel entirely, but I couldn't help but make comparisons throughout; there were not many that I noticed where Lagercrantz failed to follow Larrson's style and talent. He gives things away a little earlier than Larrson perhaps would have, and he clearly admires the characters Larrson created; both Blomkvist and Salander both seem to have less flaws and make less mistakes, but they are still essentially the same characters with just as much depth. 

The actual plot of The Girl in the Spider's Web also follows the same complexity as its prequels. It is just as intricate in detail, with every ounce of intelligence to match. I really wanted to hate this novel, out of respect for Larrson's partner who is rumoured to be against the continuation, but Lagercrantz has left no room for that. Rather than seeing the book as a chance to make money off a successful series, I see it as a dedication to Stieg Larrson and the fans he left behind but never knew. There is no doubt in my mind that this is not the last of the Millennium series, and I can't help but smile at that.