Stieg Larsson sequel penned by ‘idiot’

“I’m scared to death that I won’t live up to” Stieg Larsson, who created the trilogy but died suddenly of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50, before the series gained global fame.

Lagercrantz admitted at a Stockholm press conference earlier this week that he had found the process of continuing Larsson’s legacy “terrifying”.

The boycott concerns David Lagercrantz’s book The Girl in the Spider’s Web – the fourth instalment of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy which is due for release in 25 countries tomorrow and in the United States on September 1.

The Swedish author of the highly-anticipated sequel to the Millennium crime trilogy said yesterday he supported a Danish newspaper boycott of him over his publisher’s refusal to let literary critics read the book in advance.

David Lagercrantz, the writer tasked with writing the sequel to Stig Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy.

Eva Gabrielsson, Mr Larsson’s partner of more than three decades, said he would be “furious” about the publication, timed to hit the shelves today to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the release of the hugely successful Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

Since Larsson left no will and he wasn’t married to Gabrielsson, his assets, including his manuscripts, went to his family.

Despite his fear of failure, Lagercrantz said that being given the opportunity to write the book was “an incredible privilege, an enormous joy”.

Erland Larsson, Stieg Larsson’s father (L) and Joakim Larsson, his brother say the book’s ro …

“They say heroes are purported to reside ceaselessly. That’s a load of crap, this is about money”, she said.

But publishing home Norstedts defended Lagercrantz, a journalist from Stockholm’s intelligentsia who penned soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s official biography, saying he had a “particular expertise for depicting the world of others”.

The 52-year-old writer said he was excited to meet the series’ fans. “It’s the first real book I read in Swedish so when I heard that there was a bookstore where you could buy the new one I had to come”, Giulia, a 30-year-old Italian, told AFP.

The pair are among the many few who’ve already learn the thriller, which they lavishly praised.

So far, 2.7 million copies of The Girl with the Spider’s Web have been printed.

The writing was shrouded in secrecy with the author, editors and translators all engaged on computer systems disconnected from the Internet to stop hackers from leaking the plot.