The ghostwriter, the secret plot and a ‘grave-robbing’ Stieg Larsson sequel | Books | The Guardian

The machine will explode back into action in the first week of August, when Lagercrantz, who has already done more than 20 interviews under embargo, will embark on what Altrov Berg describes as "a huge kick-off with journalists".

"Everyone needs to do the interview here in Stockholm, because David cannot go all over the world. He cannot be beamed," she says.

Immediately after the official launch on 27 August, he will go on a tour of Europe and the US that will not see him back in Sweden for more than a few days until October. Success is far from guaranteed. "Literary Sweden is very, very suspicious of this project," says Martin Aagård, a critic with Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper. "It is some kind of grave plundering."

Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's long-term partner, who lost a bitter battle with his brother and father over the author's estate, is scathing. "This is just business, because you know the publisher has been in financial crisis for a couple of years," she says. "It's all a question of money."