Even though I can’t drink Theaksons Old Peculier, I do love the dark, mild, hand-crafted northern crime festival served up at Harrogate. This year’s highlights included an interview of Sara Paretsky by Val McDermid, and an entertaing double-act of Eddy Izzard with Mark Billingham and especial discussion on how to deal with hecklers. I was engrossed by the discussion of the upcoming fourth book in the ‘Millennium’ series, ie the further adventure of Lisbeth Salander. The panel discussed how a dead writer’s creation can legitimately be continued. I felt that in some ways it was the characters demanding to come back. Lisbeth wouldn’t just stay on the backlist, although Blomkvist might just opt for the quiet life. It will be interesting to see how the new author picks up the series, and whether he will continue with trademark Larsson ticks (excessive irrelevant detail, questionable handling of sex) which so irritated N J Cooper on this panel (and at times, myself as reader).
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