Stieg Larsson is gone but ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ returns

Swedish author Stieg Larsson took over American bestseller lists with “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.” However, he never got a chance to celebrate his popularity with American readers -- he died in 2004, the year before the first of his books was published in the U.S.

Now Norstedts Förlag, Larsson’s Swedish publisher, has decided that his tattooed heroine, Lisbeth Salander, should return.

Swedish author David Lagercrantz will write a fourth book in the series, the publisher announced. Larsson’s original plan was to have the series, known as the Millennium series, run for 10 novels.

The announcement comes after a long debate over Larsson’s estate. He and his partner, Eva Gabrielsson, were together for more than 30 years. When he died of a heart attack in 2004, he had no official will -- and under Swedish law, his entire estate went to his brother and father. Gabrielsson was entitled to nothing.

Legal battles over the estate included who would keep Larsson’s laptop and who would manage his literary legacy, including possible future books. At one point, Gabrielsson and the Larsson family each claimed they had the materials to move forward with a fourth novel.

The Bookseller, the British trade magazine that had reported on the upcoming Lisbeth Salander novel, doesn’t make clear whether the estate issues have been resolved.

The next “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” book does not yet have a title. It is to be published in Sweden by Norstedts Förlag and in Britain by Quercus. In the U.S., the three previous books were published by Alfred A. Knopf.

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