"The Girl in the Spider's Web" is the fourth installment in the Millennium series of novels. Written by David Lagercrantz, it is the first in the series not to be authored by creator Stieg Larsson.
Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004. The story revolves around the characters of master-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Adrenaline-charged thriller was released worldwide in August except in the United States, where it was released on Sept. 1.
The team behind the novel has made sure that any details did not leak. No early review copies given out. Lagercrantz wrote the book on a computer with no internet connection and individually handed his manuscripts to his publisher.
The draft of the novel was reported as completed by 52-year-old journalist-turned-novelist in January and will be translated into 38 different languages,
Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's partner, has expressed disapproval against this project. The reason behind her criticism is that she owns an incomplete fourth manuscript of the Millennium series, which is not included in the forthcoming fourth novel.
While she referred to Lagercrantz as a "completely idiotic choice" to go on with the Millennium series, in an interview with The Guardian, Lagercrantz expressed his sadness regarding Gabrielsson's concern.
"The sad thing for me is Eva Gabrielsson. I'm sorry this makes her unhappy or angry or whatever she is, but she is just one person, and the readers are millions. I understand her. It is a sad situation. I know she is angry at me, but I have the deepest respect for her," said author best known for Zlatan Ibrahimović's biography "I am Zlatan Ibrahimović."
According to Hollywood Reporter , a few journalists were given a preview of the book at Book Expo, the annual publishing convention in New York. But meeting was held away from the Javits Center where the convention was held due to security reasons.
The "Millennium" books sold over 80 million copies, and the film adaptations were box office hits.