Tattoo heroine with dark past

New author dips deeper into secret world of Salander

LISBETH Salander, the androgynous heroine and tattooed computer hacker from the Millennium series, is set to grip readers’ imaginations again after the fifth volume hit bookshelves last week Thursday.

The new book by David Lagercrantz, titled The Girl Who Takes an Eye For an Eye, promises to reveal more secrets surrounding the mysterious Salander’s troubled childhood and the true meaning behind her iconic dragon-shaped tattoo.

When Lagercrantz’s fourth tome The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which received mixed reviews, was launched in 2015, he was met with overcrowded press conferences, and he signed books until midnight.

That book was the first to continue the trilogy conceived by Stieg Larsson, who became one of the world’s best-loved crime writers. But Larsson’s fame came posthumously as he died at the age of 50 from a heart attack in 2004, a year before the release of the first book in the series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (2007).

While many Larsson fans rejoiced over the continuation of the trilogy when Lagercrantz was selected to write the fourth book, some – including Larsson’s longtime partner Eva Gabrielsson – vehemently opposed him taking up the torch.

In The Girl Who Takes an Eye For an Eye, Lagercrantz throws Salander “into the worst prison for women, where she immediately encounters a lot of problems”, he said earlier this year.

Alongside Salander, readers will find Mikael Blomqvist, an investigative journalist who’s also worn out by life. As the duo probes the abuse of power and the social injustice that Salander has gone through, they try to overcome new obstacles.

Lagercrantz, 55, has admitted that bringing Salander back to life in the books has given him a headache. Contrary to Stieg Larsson, Lagercrantz said he would have chosen a heroine with a “sweeter, nicer and more sensitive” character. The Girl Who Takes an Eye For an Eye is to be published in 34 countries. Lagercrantz has signed on to write the sixth book, which he insisted would be his last in the series. — AFP