In Spider’s Web, Lagercrantz picks up where Larsson left off
David Lagercrantz’s writing lacks some of Stieg Larsson’s political zeal, but he is faithful to Larsson’s mission.
Leftist Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004, after he had completed the three novels in his Millennium series. Sadly, he didn’t live to see the global success of his work: the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was published in 2005.
This new novel featuring Larsson’s alter-ego, courageous journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and the tattooed, borderline sociopath Lisbeth Salander is an original story by David Lagercrantz, a former crime reporter and author commissioned by Larsson’s father and brother to continue the series.
Larsson’s inventive novels sought to reimagine crime fiction as a political genre capable of drawing attention to social injustice; as their plots rattled along, the Millennium novels stripped back the friendly, Ikea-styled popular image of Sweden to reveal a society rife with corruption, abuse of power and organised crime, where fascist ideology thrives and violence against women is endemic.
The English title of the first novel was distinctly more glamorous than the simple, forthright Swedish original, Men Who Hate Women, but the crusading, anti-misogynistic spirit of the series was impossible to miss. Towards the end of the third novel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Blomkvist issued a stern warning that could have been directed at readers possibly distracted by all the shooting and mayhem: “When it comes down to it, this story is not primarily about spies and secret government agencies; it’s about violence against women, and the men who enable it.”
Lagercrantz’s writing lacks some of the intensity of Larsson’s political zeal, but for the most part he is faithful to Larsson’s mission. There are spies and secret government agencies galore in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, and conspiracies that link corporations and political institutions stretching from Sweden and Russia to the US intelligence services.
The convoluted plot hinges on industrial espionage, the mysterious murder of a computer scientist and the theft of advanced theories of artificial intelligence that supposedly present a terrible threat, although these never quite become clear. But at the core of the novel is a sad story of family violence, the heartbreakingly familiar story of men who hate and abuse the women they pretend to love.
Most important for fans, The Girl in the Spider’s Web convincingly reanimates Salander and Blomkvist in a story that deepens their strange, distant-yet-intimate relationship and also showcases their most compelling and human qualities. Blomkvist gets to display his charm, his casual egotism, his somewhat old-fashioned, stubborn sense of journalistic integrity and chivalry; Salander ruthlessly pursues her single-minded obsession with the truth, and through a storyline involving her femme fatale sister Camilla we gain more insights into the terrifying childhood that shaped her.
True to form, Salander embodies the Nietzschean dictum that her criminal psychopath father lived by, and that gives Lagercrantz’s novel its Swedish title: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In the last novel in Larsson’s series we saw Salander drag herself out of her grave with a bullet in her brain and confront her would-be murderer with an axe. In this instalment she treats a bullet to the chest with a bandage improvised from a borrowed shirt, self-medicates with out-of-date antibiotics, then continues her avenging rampage.
She shows her worth as a staunch protector of the most vulnerable and exploited in her brief connection with August, a somewhat stereotypically drawn young boy with autism who witnesses a key murder. Like Salander, August has been abused by people he trusts, and like her he is socially cut-off, mathematically gifted and chronically underestimated by those around him. Their moments together are frustratingly limited, yet fascinating for what they reveal about Salander and her capacity for relating to others.
Kirsten Tranter is an author and critic.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
By David Lagercrantz
Hachette, 432pp, $32.99