Swedish Author to Pen New Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Novel

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in The Millennium Trilogy, saw the crime genre get a shot of adrenaline thanks to the novel’s fascinating characters, gritty exploration of crime, and ever-twisting plot points. Sadly, the author, Stieg Larsson, never got to enjoy their success, passing away suddenly before the first of the three books he’s written was published.

While Larsson had penned three by the time of his death, he had envisioned the series to expand beyond the initial trilogy, culminating in at least 10 books.

Following the success of the first three books, the Larsson estate appointed David Lagercrantz to pen three more entries; The Girl in the Spider’s Web, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, and The Girl Who Lived Twice. It has been announced that the seventh book in the series, called The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, has been written by Swedish author Karin Smirnoff, making her the first female author to chronicle the journey of hacker detective Lisbeth Salander. The novel was released late last year in Swedish under the name Havsörnens Skrik, and an English translation will hit shelves this August.

As The Guardian reports, The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons will see Lisbeth team up with her long-time partner in crime, Mikael Blomkvist, as they find themselves moving from Stockholm to northern Sweden, described by UK publisher MacLehose Press as “an area vast and beautiful, but also dealing with economic and social problems and the effects of climate change and environmental exploitation”. Given that it’s reported the first six books in the series have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, there will no doubt be plenty of readers eager to experience the next chapter in Lisbeth’s journey through the world of crime.

While plenty of fans will be happy to hear a new Millennium novel is on its way, Larsson’s long-time partner, Eva Gabrielsson, has criticised the Larsson estate’s decision to continue the series despite it’s creator’s death. When it was originally announced Lagercrantz would be penning a new novel featuring Lisbeth Salander, Gabrielsson said she “wouldn’t have continued Stieg’s work. It was his language, his unique narrative … The worst thing is how saddened Stieg would have been. He never let anyone work on his literary texts. He would have been furious.”