Lisbeth is back, sans vengeance

Leather-clad punk hacker and the most unlikely heroines of 21st century – Lisbeth Salander is back. In the David Langencrantz’s ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’ – a fourth instalment of Millennium series, she and Mikael Bloomkvist unravel the mystery behind the death of an artificial intelligence expert

Reviving classics and best sellers years after original author’s death has become a new fad in the literary world. When the Stieg Larsson’s estate announced that they would be reviving Millennium Trilogy, the expectations touched the roof. Millennium Trilogy is perhaps the most read Scandinavian crime thriller series and Lisbeth Salander is undoubtedly, the genre-defying protagonist of the 21st century.

David Lagencrantz – journalist and author, renowned for his book ‘I am Zlatan’- biography of enigmatic footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has done a great job with the fourth instalment. In the book, ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’, he weaves an intriguing tale that discusses hacking as no one does ever before. A well-researched take on hacking culture, the book involves Lisbeth and Mikael Bloomkvist unravelling mystery surrounding, Swedish secret police, hackers, gangsters and even the NSA.

An accomplished journalist and skilled writer Lagencrantz introduces wider issues like state surveillance, rise of artificial intelligence, etc. Although he treads Larsson’s line with slow burn, punctuated by bursts of action, the book isn’t as dark as the trilogy and violence unlike Larsson’s is less glorified. As with all well researched books, the details about math and hacking often bring narrative to a halt.

Lagencrantz successfully introduced the rather unknown compassionate side of Lisbeth, which is written beautifully in an episode where she interacts with an autistic savant kid, who witnesses brutal murder of his father. The entire episode is so poignantly written that one cannot help but think was Lisbeth autistic?

As the author said in many interviews that his problem with Larsson’s Blomkvist was women came to him, fell down and wanted to sleep with him, he didn't even have to charm them; he definitely tried to tone this down. In this book Bloomkvist battles two arch rivals of print journalism – drink and sloth apart from confronting budding enemy online journalism.

However, has to agree that the book lacks the provocative and activist undertones that the trilogy was famous for. This might have to do with the difference in backgrounds of the authors, while Larsson came from an activist background and like Bloomkvist is an investigative journalist, Lagencrantz celebrated in his own right isn’t an activist and it can be spotted in the book.

The book isn’t free of criticisms either and biggest critic was none other than Larssson’s long time girlfriend and partner Eva Gabrielsson. When the Larsson literary estate, fully controlled by his brother and father, hired Lagercrantz for fourth instalment, Gabrielsson voiced criticism against the project. She claimed that she possesses an unfinished fourth manuscript of the Millennium series, which is not included in the novel. She also referred to Lagercrantz as a "completely idiotic choice".

All said and done, ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’ is an intelligent and a taut thriller; however, one cannot help but miss the provocative side of trilogy.