Lagercrantz goes from Dragon Tattoo to 'modern Sherlock Holmes'

MacLehose Press has bought rights to a new trilogy by David Lagercrantz, who took over writing the Lisbeth Salander Millennium series from the late Stieg Larsson. 

Described as "a modern Sherlock Holmes saga", the Rekke trilogy features a young police officer, raised in a rough neighbourhood, and an older professor specialised in psychopathy and interrogational techniques.

The first book will be published in August/September 2021 with rights acquired from Norstedts Agency in Sweden, with 20 more foreign publishers also snapping up rights—mostly publishers of Millennium.

US rights have gone to Knopf and Canadian rights to PRH. In Sweden, the series will be published by Norstedts' publshing arm and edited by its now c.e.o. Eva Gedin, who first published Larsson in 2005. Lagercrantz's three Millennium books have shfited just over £4.2m through Nielsen BookScan, while I am Zlatan (Penguin), the memoir he co-wrote for the Sweden and former Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, has sold 101,000 copies.  

Publisher Christopher MacLehose said: "We had always hoped that David Lagercrantz would turn to his own stories after his acclaimed sequels to the Millennium series. His remarkable ‘autobiography’ I Am Zlatan, Sweden’s best-selling non-fiction title of all time, and his quite brilliant novel about the death of Alan Turing, as well as his time spent on the crime reporter’s beat at Expressen, have always given us the conviction that his own police investigations would be exceptional."

Lagercrantz said: "I am thrilled to be bringing to life two new characters I have been developing for a while, even since my early years as a crime reporter. And to be working with MacLehose Press/Quercus, Knopf US and Penguin Canada once again feels just right for my new series."