The Girl in the Spider's Web / David Lagercrantz

The most famous names from Swedish literature since Pippi Longstocking may well be Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the first title in the Millennium series, and while the series wasn't perfect, the characters were strong, and the books quickly became a worldwide publishing phenomenon. Due to his untimely death several years ago, the estate of the author Stieg Larsson contracted a new writer to pen a further installment, and along with Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, this may have been one of the most anticipated titles of 2015.

Though some fans will be pleased, others will inevitably be disappointed. I suppose I count myself among the second group. Lisbeth and Mikael seem to be on mood stabilizers and so very different from their previous incarnations as to be almost unidentifiable. The action doesn’t really pick up until the last one hundred or so pages, and though it provides interesting insight into Lisbeth’s twin, Camilla, the novel really doesn’t do much to showcase Lisbeth herself, which for me was probably the biggest disappointment.

There is a quote direct from the book that quite accurately sums up my appraisal of The Girl in the Spider’s Web --

“It was all taking a long time and seemed disorganized and Blomkvist was longing for his bed.” p140

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