Praise for
THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB
“Fans of Stieg Larsson’s captivating odd couple of modern detective fiction – the genius punk hacker Lisbeth Salander and her sometime partner, the crusading investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist – will not be disappointed by the latest instalment of their adventures, written not by their creator, Stieg Larsson (who died of a heart attack at the age of 50 in 2004), but by a Swedish journalist and author named David Lagercrantz … Salander and Blomkvist have survived the authorship transition intact and are just as compelling as ever”
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times
“Larsson died before his wildly popular The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came out, but the publisher chose wisely in tapping David Lagercrantz to continue the series with The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Not only do the matter-of-fact style and intricate plotting and sexy, chilling atmosphere feel very true to the original novels, but Lagercrantz transcends the source material. He’s the better writer. He worked as a crime reporter and knows our journalist protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, and Sweden’s troubles well. In this version: A brilliant scientist is murdered. Corporate and government websites are compromised. Cybercriminals lurk in the sordid corners of the night and the Internet. And a severely autistic savant might hold the key to a mystery. It’s a dark, thrilling novel that channels our very real digital vulnerabilities as people, businesses and nations”
BENJAMIN PERCY, Esquire
“One devours Larsson’s books for the plots, the action, the anger, and most of all for Lisbeth Salander, a character who resembles Sherlock Holmes or James Bond in being so powerful because she is a brilliantly realised myth rather than a psychologically convincing character study. Lagercrantz has caught her superbly, and expertly spun the sort of melodramatic yarn in which she can thrive”
JAKE KERRIDGE, Daily Telegraph
“Last seen vanquishing her half-brother by punching nails through his feet, Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, is making a comeback – but now with a new author. Since the posthumous publication [in Sweden] of the first book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2005, sales of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy have exceeded 80m copies. Now David Lagercrantz has stepped into the original creator’s shoes to bring the tattooed, vengeful hacker Lisbeth back to life … Mr Lagercrantz displays an innate understanding of the world Mr Larsson created, and has stayed true to the characters of Salander and Blomkvist, who remain impervious to authorial change”
Economist
“A skilled novelist in his own right – his books include Fall of Man in Wilmslow, about the tragic British computer pioneer Alan Turing – Lagercrantz has constructed an elegant plot around different concepts of intelligence … Lagercrantz’s continuation, while never formulaic, is a cleaner and tighter read than the originals, although he follows the template in building the plot slowly and methodically. He is, technically, a more adept novelist than Larsson, smoothly switching viewpoint in two sections where characters come under threat from assassins. Without ever becoming pastiche, the book is a respectful and affectionate homage to the originals”
MARK LAWSON, Guardian
“Mr Lagercrantz definitely shares Larsson’s love of Lisbeth Salander, the punkish, tatted waif and hacker whose chief talent is to remind us that revenge is a dish best served piping hot. He keeps her offstage for the opening chapters, but when the dragoness enters the story she speeds it up nicely … But the novel’s overarching evil is greed. A Swedish security cop shudders ‘at the creeping realization that we live in a twisted world where everything, both big and small, is subject to surveillance, and where anything worth money will always be exploited’. This kind of pronouncement is very much in the Stieg Larsson spirit: The rich and powerful are different – they have more money and fewer scruples and need to be knocked into shape by righteous journalists and fearless waifs”
DAVID SHIFLETT, Wall Street Journal
“First, the conclusion. David Lagercrantz has done well. He was set an almost impossible task by Stieg Larsson’s estate when they asked him to write a ‘continuation’ novel featuring Lisbeth Salander. He has carried it out with intelligence and vigour. The Girl in the Spider’s Web conveys the essence and atmosphere of Larsson’s Millennium novels. He has captured the spirit of their characters and devised inventive plots … On the evidence of Spider’s Web, most Millennium fans will want to continue following their Lisbeth”
MARCEL BERLINS, The Times
“The plotting is similar to Larsson’s. There is a slow burn, punctuated by bursts of action before a page-turning finale. However, the book never strays into the dark descriptions of violence that punctuate the originals … Lagercrantz could not have fulfilled the commission any more efficiently. The novel leaves much to be said between Salander and Blomkvist and so surely increases the chances of the sequence continuing on towards the ten books that Larsson is said to have originally imagined”
NICK CLARK, Independent
THE MILLENNIUM SERIES BY STIEG LARSSON
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
THE MILLENNIUM SERIES BY DAVID LAGERCRANTZ
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
ALSO BY DAVID LAGERCRANTZ IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
I am Zlatan Ibrahimović
Fall of Man in Wilmslow
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by
MacLehose Press
An imprint of Quercus Publishing Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK company
Mannen som sökte sin skugga © David Lagercrantz & Moggliden AB, first published by Norstedts, Sweden, in 2017
Published by agreement with Norstedts Agency
English translation copyright © 2017 by George Goulding
Maps © Emily Faccini
The moral right of David Lagercrantz to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
George Goulding asserts his moral right to be identified as the translator of the work
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN (HB) 978 0 85705 640 5
ISBN (TPB) 978 0 85705 642 9
ISBN (E-BOOK) 978 0 85705 644 3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental
CONTENTS
Praise for The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Also by David Lagercrantz
Title Page
Copyright
Map of Stockholm
Map of Stockholm and suburbs
Map of Sweden
Characters in the Millennium series
Prologue
Part I: The Dragon
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II: Troubling Tones
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part III: The Vanishing Twin
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Author’s Acknowledgements
Author and Translator Biographies
CHARACTERS IN THE MILLENNIUM SERIES
LISBETH SALANDER an elusive, exceptionally talented hacker and mathematical genius, tattooed and with a troubled past, driven by a need for justice – and vengeance.
MIKAEL BLOMKVIST a leading investigative journalist at Millennium magazine. Salander helped him to research one of the biggest stories of his career, about the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. He later helped to clear her of murder and vindicate her in a legal battle over her right to determine her own affairs. Sometimes nicknamed “Kalle Blomkvist”, after a boy detective who appears in several novels by Astrid Lindgren.
ALEXANDER ZALACHENKO also known as Zala, or his alias Karl Axel Bodin. A Russian spy who defected to Sweden and was protected for years by a special group within Säpo. He was the head of a criminal empire but also the father of Lisbeth Salander, who tried to kill him for the violent abuse of her mother. Ultimately he was finished off by Säpo.
RONALD NIEDERMANN Lisbeth Salander’s half-brother, a blonde giant impervious to pain. Salander arranged for his murder.
CAMILLA SALANDER Lisbeth’s troublesome twin sister, from whom she is estranged. Known to be linked to criminal gangs and thought to live in Moscow.
AGNETA SALANDER Lisbeth and Camilla’s mother, who died in a nursing home at the age of forty-three.
HOLGER PALMGREN Salander’s former guardian, a lawyer. One of the few people who knows Salander well and whom she trusts.
DRAGAN ARMANSKY Salander’s former employer, the head of Milton Security. Another of the few she trusts.
PETER TELEBORIAN Salander’s sadistic child psychiatrist. Chief prosecution witness in Salander’s incompetency trial.
IRENE NESSER a woman whose Norwegian passport has fallen into Salander’s hands, allowing Salander to assume her identity when convenient.
ERIKA BERGER editor-in-chief of Millennium magazine, a close friend and occasional lover of Blomkvist.
GREGER BECKMAN Erika Berger’s husband, an architect.
MALIN ERIKSSON managing editor of Millennium magazine.
CHRISTER MALM art director and partner at Millennium magazine.
ANNIKA GIANNINI Blomkvist’s sister, a defence lawyer who has represented Salander.
HARRIET VANGER scion of a wealthy industrial family, who disappeared as a girl and was found by Blomkvist and Salander at the behest of her great-uncle, Henrik Vanger. She became a shareholder in Millennium.
SVAVELSJÖ M.C. a thuggish motorcycle gang closely associated with Niedermann and Zalachenko. Some of its criminal members have in the past been seriously injured by Salander.
HACKER REPUBLIC a coalition of hackers, among whom Salander, who goes by the handle “Wasp”, is the star. Includes Plague, Trinity and Bob the Dog.
SÄPO the Swedish security police, which harboured a secret faction known as “the Section” dedicated to protecting Zalachenko.
JAN BUBLANSKI chief inspector with the Stockholm police, headed the team investigating the Salander case. Known as “Officer Bubble”.
SONJA MODIG a police inspector who has for some years worked closely with Bublanski, along with CURT SVENSSON, AMANDA FLOD and JERKER HOLMBERG.
RICHARD EKSTRÖM the prosecutor who brought the case against Salander, now chief prosecutor.
PROFESSOR FRANS BALDER an exceptional scientist and mathematician, murdered for the story he was about to publish with Millennium magazine. AUGUST, his supremely gifted, autistic son, is rescued by Salander from Camilla’s criminal associates and, together with his mother, HANNA, taken abroad for his protection.
ANDREI ZANDER a young and talented journalist on Millennium magazine, murdered by Camilla.
FARAH SHARIF professor of computer sciences, fiancée to Jan Bublanski.
PROLOGUE
Holger Palmgren was sitting in his wheelchair in the visitors’ room.
“Why is that dragon tattoo so important to you?” he said. “I’ve always wanted to know.”
“It had to do with my mother.”
“With Agneta?”
“I was little, maybe six. I ran away from home.”
“There was a woman who used to stop by to see you, wasn’t there? It’s coming back to me now. She had some kind of birthmark.”
“It looked like a burn on her throat.”
“As if a dragon had breathed fire on her.”
PART I
THE DRAGON
12 – 20.vi
Sten Sture the Elder had a statue put up in 1489, to celebrate his victory over the King of Denmark at the Battle of Brunkeberg.
The statue – which stands in Storkyrkan, the cathedral in Stockholm – is of St George on horseback, his sword raised. Beneath him lies a dying dragon.
Next to them stands a woman in Burgundian attire. She is the maiden being saved by the knight in this dramatic scene, and is thought to be modelled on Sten Sture the Elder’s wife, Ingeborg Åkesdotter.
The maiden’s expression is strangely unconcerned.
CHAPTER 1
12.vi
Lisbeth Salander was on her way back to her cell from the gym and the showers when she was stopped in the corridor by the warden. Alvar Olsen was blathering on about something, gesticulating wildly and waving a set of papers. But Salander could not hear a word he said. It was 7.30 p.m.
That was the most dangerous time at Flodberga Prison. 7.30 p.m. was when the daily freight train thundered past, the walls shook and keys rattled and the place smelled of sweat and perfume. All the worst abuses took place then, masked by the racket from the railway and in the general confusion just before the cell doors were shut. Salander always let her gaze wander back and forth over the unit at this time of day and it was probably no coincidence that she caught sight of Faria Kazi.
Faria was young and beautiful, from Bangladesh, and she was sitting in her cell. From where Salander and Olsen stood, all Salander could see was her face. Someone was slapping Faria. Her head kept jerking from side to side, though the blows were not that hard – there was something almost routine about them. It was clear from Faria’s humiliated expression that the abuse had been going on for a long time, and had broken all will to resist.
No hands were raised to try to stop the slapping, and in Faria’s eyes there was no indication of surprise, only a mute, dull fear. This terror was part of her life. Salander could see that just by studying her face, and it matched what she had observed during her weeks at the prison.
“Will you look at that,” she said, pointing into Faria’s cell.
But by the time Olsen had turned to look it was over. Salander disappeared into her own cell and closed the door. She could hear voices and muffled laughter in the corridor and outside the freight train clanging by, shaking the walls. She stood in front of the shiny washbasin and narrow bed, the bookshelf and desk strewn with pages of her quantum mechanical calculations. Did she feel like doing more work on loop quantum gravity theory? She realized she was holding something and looked down at her hand.
It was the same sheaf of papers that Olsen had been waving around, and that did, after all, make her a little curious. But it was some sort of rubbish with coffee cup rings all over the cover page, an intelligence test. Ridiculous. She hated to be prodded and measured.
She dropped the papers which spread like a fan on the concrete floor. F
or a brief moment they vanished from her mind as her thoughts went back to Faria Kazi. Salander had not seen who was hitting her. But she knew perfectly well who it was. Although at first prison life had not interested Salander, reluctantly she had been drawn in, decoding the visible and invisible signals one by one. By now she understood who called the shots.
This was called the B Unit, the secure section. It was considered the safest place in the institution and to a visitor that might have been how it seemed. There were more guards, more controls and more rehabilitation programmes here than anywhere else in the prison. But anyone who took a closer look would realize there was something rotten about the place. The guards put on an act, exuding authority, and they even pretended to care. But in fact they were cowards who had lost control, and they had ceded power to their chief antagonists, gang leader Benito Andersson and her mob.
During the day Benito kept a low profile and behaved much like a model prisoner, but after the evening meal, when the inmates could exercise or receive visits, she took over the place. At this time of day her reign of terror was uncontested, just before the doors were locked for the night. As the prisoners roamed between cells, making threats and promises in whispered tones, Benito’s gang kept to one side, their victims to the other.
The fact that Salander was in prison at all was a major scandal. But circumstances had hardly been on her side, nor had she put up a very convincing fight. The interlude seemed absurd to her, but she also thought she might just as well be in jail as anywhere else.
She had been sentenced to two months for unlawful use of property and reckless endangerment in the dramatic events following the murder of Professor Frans Balder. Salander had taken it upon herself to hide an eight-year-old autistic boy and refused to cooperate with the police because she believed – quite rightly – that the police investigation had been betrayed. No-one disputed that she went to heroic lengths to save the child’s life. Even so, Chief Prosecutor Richard Ekström led the case with great conviction and the court ultimately found against her, although one of the lay judges dissented. Salander’s lawyer, Giannini had done an outstanding job. But she got virtually no help from her client so that in the end she did not stand a chance. Salander maintained a sullen silence throughout the trial and she refused to appeal the verdict. She simply wanted to get the business over with.
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye: Continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series Page 1
