The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

(hb; 2015: fourth novel in the Millennium series. Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding.)

From the inside flap:

"Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return.

"She is the girl with the dragon tattoo -- a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.

"Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker -- a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it."


Review:

Lagercrantz's pick-up of Larsson's Millennium series maintains the same steady-build-then-explosive feel of the first three books in the series. Again, the characters -- some of them familiar, some of them new -- are worth rooting for or hissing at; the intensity and intentions of those characters are alarming and thrilling, lending additional urgency to the physical (sometimes fatal) action. These elements are further heightened by the cinematic (but character-true) jump-cut editing, especially during the multi-character cliffhangerish sequences.

Spider's Web is a fun, reader-hooking-from-the-get-go and deepening-of-the-familial-storyline read, one worth owning -- as are the previous Millennium books. (For those who have not read the first three books, Spider's Web also works as a stand-alone read.)

Followed by The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.

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The resulting film was released stateside on November 9, 2018. Fede Alvarez directed the film, from a screenplay by himself, Jay Basu and Steven Knight.

Claire Foy played Lisbeth Salander. Sverrir Gudnason played Mikael Blomkvist. LaKeith Stanfield played Ed Needham. Sylvia Hoeks played Camilla Salander. Vicky Krieps played Erika Berger. Paula Schramm played Malin Erikson.

Beau Gadsdon played "Young Lisbeth Salander." Carlotta von Falkenhayn played "Young Camilla Salander." Cameron Britton played Plague.

Stephen Merchant played Frans Balder. Christopher Convery played August Balder. Claes Bang played Jan Holtser.