The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

This is the long awaited sequel to the Lisbeth Salander novels penned by Stieg Larsson. You may remember reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I think it is always difficult for an author to keep the same momentum as the original author in continuing his or her work.  Some other author's works that come to mind are Robert Ludlum and Robert Parker.  I am not sure whether it is the original author's style of writing, plot line or character development or perhaps all three.  In any case, Mr. Lagercrantz has written an interesting book.

In addition to Lisbeth, readers will be pleased to note that Blomkvist has also returned in this new entry.  The premise for this story is that someone has hacked into the files held by the NSA.  Blomkvist has been informed of the incident and has learned that the hacker sounds a lot like Lisbeth.

A new character is introduced in the form of a young boy with autism who witnesses a murder.  He is basically uncommunicative until someone realizes that his drawings depict what actually happened.  There are other minor characters in this story as well.

Blomkvist and Lisbeth work together to try to ascertain what the secret files contain.  They follow all types of leads that cross all boundaries of law enforcement.

While this novel offers some interesting twists and helps the reader to discover a new side to Lisbeth, it cannot take the place of the intense momentum featured in the first three books of this series.

Ladybookbug!