The Writing in the Water

Lindqvist (Let the Right One In) pokes fun at the publishing industry in this offbeat series launch that teams cop-turned-author Julia Malmros with expert hacker Kim Ribbing. Malmros has had commercial and critical success writing novels featuring detective sergeant Åsa Fors, which brings her an invitation to continue Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. Despite months of effort and the publisher’s assurance that Malmros’s manuscript is “superb,” they demand a different plot, prompting an angry Malmros to back out of the deal. Her only consolation is the relationship she’s developed with Ribbing, an enigmatic hacker she interviewed while shaping her version of the Lisbeth Salander character. Their dynamic shifts when, while the pair are having drinks, Ribbing hears machine gun fire, and they rush to the scene of a massacre committed by two men in a passing boat. Among the dead are Malmros’s childhood friend, Olof Helander, whom she becomes determined to avenge. The two draw on Malmros’s sleuthing experience to conduct an investigation that’s complicated by the fact that Julia’s ex-husband has been tapped to lead the official inquiry. Lindqvist plays the book’s metafictional notes softly enough that they never become distracting, and the chemistry between his leads is electric. Readers will be eager for the sequel. (Nov.)