For those familiar with this series, it was quite a blow for the original author, Steig Larsson to pass away after completing only three novels. It was quite a coup for David Lagercrantz to be selected to continue the series. He is an acclaimed Swedish journalist and author and has worked as a crime reporter for Expressen; he has written several novels, including the forthcoming Fall of Man in Wilmslow. Also, he worked with international soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović on his memoir, I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, which was short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and was nominated for the August Prize in Sweden.To his credit, the novel includes all of the characters and elements of the previous stories, intrigue, unpronounceable (for Americans) Swedish names and place names, technical details of computer hacking, and a cast of Russian thugs along with Bloomqvist and Salander. While the novel does not disappoint, it also does not quite live up to Larsson's standards. The story will hold one's attention, but, in my opinion, Bloomqvist and Salander were not up to their usual standards, and everything was resolved too neatly for my taste. Perhaps it is better to let the series die with the original author.
416 pages, translated by George Goulding
