David Lagercrantz - The Girl in the Spiders Web: A Lisbeth Salander novel, continuing Stieg Larssons Millennium Series

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

I am Zlatan Ibrahimovi

Fall of Man in Wilmslow

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

MacLehose Press

An imprint of Quercus Publishing Ltd

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC 4 Y 0 DZ

An Hachette UK company

Det som inte ddar oss David Lagercrantz & Moggliden AB,

first published by Norstedts, Sweden, in 2015

Published by agreement with Norstedts Agency

English translation copyright 2015 by George Goulding

Maps Emily Faccini

The moral right of David Lagercrantz to be

identified as the author of this work has been

asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

George Goulding asserts his moral right to be identified as

the translator of the work

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopy, recording, or any

information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

ISBN (HB) 978 0 85705 999 4

ISBN (TPB) 978 0 85705 350 3

ISBN (E-BOOK) 978 1 84866 777 8

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

businesses, organizations, places and events are

either the product of the authors imagination

or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or

locales is entirely coincidental

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

CHARACTERS IN THE MILLENNIUM SERIES

LISBETH SALANDER an exceptionally talented hacker with tattoos, piercings and a troubled past.

MIKAEL BLOMKVIST an investigating journalist at Millennium magazine. Salander helped him to research one of the biggest stories of his career, about the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. He later helped to clear her of murder and vindicate her in a legal battle over her right to determine her own affairs.

ALEXANDER ZALACHENKO also known as Zala, or his alias Karl Axel Bodin. A Russian spy who defected to Sweden and was protected for years by a special group within Spo. He is Lisbeth Salanders father, and used violently to abuse her mother, Agneta Salander. He was also the head of a criminal empire.

RONALD NIEDERMANN Salanders half-brother, a blond giant impervious to pain. Salander arranged for his murder.

CAMILLA SALANDER Salanders twin sister, from whom she is estranged.

AGNETA SALANDER Salander and Camillas mother, who died in a nursing home at the age of forty-three.

HOLGER PALMGREN Salanders former guardian, a lawyer. One of the few people who knows Salander well and whom she trusts.

DRAGAN ARMANSKY Salanders former, now-occasional, employer, the head of Milton Security. Another of the few she trusts.

PETER TELEBORIAN Salanders sadistic child psychiatrist. Chief prosecution witness in Salanders incompetency trial.

IRENE NESSER a woman whose Norwegian passport has fallen into Salanders hands, allowing Salander to assume her identity.

HANS-ERIK WENNERSTRM a shadowy magnate who tricks Blomkvist into publishing an unsubstantiated defamatory article about his business, landing Blomkvist in prison. Salander uses her talents to empty his bank accounts in retribution.

ERIKA BERGER editor in chief of Millennium magazine, occasional lover of Blomkvist.

GREGER BECKMAN Erika Bergers husband.

MALIN ERIKSSON managing editor of Millennium.

CHRISTER MALM art director and partner at Millennium.

ANNIKA GIANNINI Blomkvists sister, a lawyer who represented Salander in her trial.

HARRIET VANGER scion of a wealthy industrial family, who disappeared as a girl and was found by Blomkvist and Salander at the behest of her great-uncle, Henrik Vanger. She became a shareholder in Millennium.

SVAVELSJ M.C. a motorcycle gang closely associated with Zalachenko. Members of the gang were seriously injured by Salander.

HACKER REPUBLIC a coalition of hackers, among whom Salander, who goes by the handle Wasp, is the star. Includes Plague, Trinity and Bob the Dog.

SPO the Swedish security police, which harboured a secret faction known as the Section dedicated to protecting Zalachenko.

JAN BUBLANSKI detective inspector with the Stockholm police, who headed the team investigating the Salander case. Now promoted to chief inspector. Known as Officer Bubble.

SONJA MODIG a police officer who works closely with Bublanski.

JERKER HOLMBERG a police officer who, in Bublanskis eyes, is perhaps the best crime scene investigator in the Swedish police force.

HANS FASTE a Stockholm policeman who clashed with Bublanski and leaked information to Prosecutor Ekstrm during the Salander investigation.

RICHARD EKSTRM the prosecutor who brought the case against Salander, now chief prosecutor. A manipulative and venal man, believed within the police to be interested only in self-advancement.