The Girl in the Spider's Web: A Lisbeth Salander Novel

Though purists may debate this, Lagercrantz here embraces the challenge of sustaining the late Stieg Larsson's characters in a complex tale of cyberhacking and kidnapping. While much of the early chapters establish the technological intrigue, the story amps up after artificial intelligence expert Frans Balder is murdered in front of his autistic son, August, and Lisbeth enters the story as the boy's life is threatened. She is still the strong, enigmatic, vengeful heroine, while Mikael Blomkvist is perhaps too conveniently on the scene for many of the key conflicts as the plot slowly reunites them. Lagercrantz stays true to Salander's traumatic past and develops it further. Since the original trilogy was so well received and Larsson's death seemed to close any future encounters with such intriguing characters, this is a promising relaunch. Simon Vance's well-honed voice is featured well here.