The girl with Larsson's last manuscript
Fans of the late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson will no doubt be familiar with his story: that the left-wing journalist and investigator wrote, in his spare time, three novels. Only months after he had delivered the manuscripts to his publisher, he died suddenly of a heart attack aged 50.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest have since gone on to sell around 30 million copies worldwide, the profits of which Larsson never got to enjoy.
His death has led to plenty of speculation, in particular about the existence of a fourth unfinished book. Last week, his brother Joakim claimed in a TV interview with the US channel CBS that such a book did exist, and that his brother had told him only 10 days before his death, that it was "nearly finished". Confusingly, though, he claims that it was written as the fifth rather than the fourth story. "This book number four," he reportedly said, "that's book number five, because he thought that was more fun to write than book number four."
Whether four or five, it could be a while before the publishing industry gets its hands on it: Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's long-term partner has, since his death, been locked in a legal dispute with the author's parents over the contents of his estate. It is said that she currently holds the laptop on which the manuscript is kept.
