The Girl In The Spider's Web: David Lagercrantz

I think even a million dollars would not persuade me to be in David Lagercrantz's shoes. It takes guts to write. It takes even more guts to write a sequel to some enduring bestsellers. If Stieg Larsson's partner Eva Gabrielsson is to be believed, the book is just a copycat that is trying very hard to cash in on the fame of the Millenium Trilogy. Greed is what she would have called it. As it is Eva says that she would not read the book. "I read original writers, not people who copy other people's books, so to say. So I won't read it." For those who have been following the saga closely, Eva has been locked in a settlement dispute over the Larsson estate. And she has been especially critical of David Lagercrantz, something that the author himself is aware of.

Who is David Lagercrantz? He is best known in Sweden for having written Zlatan Ibrahimović's biography Í Am Zlatan'. I had read all of Stieg Larsson's Millenium series, despite me not usually falling to hype. I still haven't read any of the Grey books, in case you are thinking I have fallen for that hype too. But like most readers, I came back with one character etched in my mind - Lisbeth Salander. The cocky, brimming-with-attitude girl with a strong moral core and a terrible sensitivity to injustice. Who can forget her? We need characters like her. It's no surprise then that Lagercrantz aims to build on that character. Heck, the book is called a Lisbeth Salander novel!

In keeping with the Millenium trilogy, The Girl In The Spider's Web has all the usual trappings of drama. But with a twist. We are invited into the 21st century world of industrial espionage and high level hacking. The NSA and Sapo are in action again. We have a peek into the world that awaits us in the future called Artificial Intelligence. We also have the same thread of violence against women. And we have Lisbeth somehow doing what she does best - swooping in when there are bullets and punching, kicking, and shooting her way through. Did I mention that Mikael Blomkvist exists? He does. But here the focus is all Lisbeth. Blomkvist is the sideshow here. The journalist who is in the right place at the wrong time. I am not sure what he really does in the novel apart from that, but by then you don't care. You know who you are rooting for. Like the good old Marvel comics, we need our superhero. Lisbeth is one.

So, should you read this book? I would say, why not? It moves fast. I finished it in a day. There are a number of quirky characters introduced. August, an autistic savant, is by the next best character after Lisbeth in the book. The plot does not sag even though I was kind of wondering if artificial intelligence is worth all the killing and mayhem. I wished there was a bit more of a relationship set with Lisbeth. She doesn't seem to exist to talk to anyone except August and his mother in one classic speech. You know the ending is predictable. There is no great build-up. No whodunits. You know who the killer is. The rest of the book is just tracking them down. You won't waste your time. And while it is no Stieg Larrson, not even Lagercrantz, I am sure wants it to be so. This is a very good Lagercrantz novel with an iconic heroine. For that alone, I read it.

Rating: 3/5