The Girl in the Spider's Web

Starred review from August 31, 2015
Lagercrantz's worthy, crowd-pleasing fourth installment in the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium saga opens in Sweden, where some intellectual property developed by artificial intelligence genius Frans Balder has been stolen by a video game company with ties to Russian mobsters. Crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who's casting about for a new investigative project, is about to meet with Balder when an intruder kills the scientist and puts Balder's autistic eight-year-old son in danger. Meanwhile in the U.S., the National Security Agency is hacked, and its chief of security, Edwin Needham, vows revenge. Lisbeth Salander plays a central role in both plot lines, and the pleasure resides in watching Lagercrantz (Fall of Man in Wilmslow) corral an enormous cast of characters into an intricate story revolving around the larger-than-life hacker and her desire to right wrongs, including corporate espionage, a government spying on its own citizens, and violence against the defenseless. Two new characters make strong impressions: Jan Bublanski, a Stockholm detective with a humanistic bent, and Camilla Salander, Lisbeth's twin, who sets the stage for further Millennium novels. Lagercrantz, his prose more assured than Larsson's, keeps Salander's fiery rage at the white-hot level her fans will want. Agent: Magdalena Hedlund, Norstedts Agency (Sweden).

October 26, 2015
With Lagercrantz’s prose acceptably miming the late Stieg Larsson, and Vance once again lending his rich, clipped British narration to the dynamic adventures of antisocial ultrahacker Lisbeth Salander and altruist reporter Mikael Blomkvist, the Sweden-set Millennium series continues almost seamlessly. This book finds Bloomkvist searching for a rejuvenating new project when he hears about an artificial intelligence genius named Balder whose latest creation has been stolen by Russian cybercriminals. Before he can talk to Balder, the man is murdered, and his autistic child, a witness to the crime, is placed in the care of a vile guardian. Salander steps in, vowing to right all wrongs. Vance doesn’t just add a throaty quality to Bloomkvist’s voice; there’s also weariness and despair, both of which fade as the plot quickens. Salander speaks in a harsh staccato, underlined by impatience and an inability to compromise. Vance’s presentation of the other characters is just as spot-on, including a gruff but understanding detective named Bublanski and an NSA superhacker named Needham, who admires Salander as much as he despises her. Every aspect of the novel benefits from Vance’s vocal timbre. A Knopf hardcover.