Holidays with Lisbeth Salander: Stieg Larsson book set on the way
August 3, 2010 | LA Times

tThe three volumes of Stieg Larsson's wildly popular Millennium Trilogy -- "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" -- will be released as a box set, with an additional book about the author, in time for the holidays, publisher Knopf has announced.

The three books make up the complete set of mysteries featuring Lisbeth Salander, an edgy computer hacker, and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Written in Swedish by Larsson, a journalist who died of cancer in 2004, the books are reported to have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.

The series' popularity, rather than working against the box set, makes it a prime candidate for bookish gift-givers.

Fans hungry for more on the deceased author will be particularly interested in the fourth book, "On Stieg Larsson" (not pictured here). A slim volume of 96 pages, "On Stieg Larsson" includes e-mails between Larsson and his editor, as well as four previously unpublished essays about the author and his work.

Each of the four volumes will include maps and colored end papers. The set, which will appear in stores around Thanksgiving, will retail for $99.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: An advance look at the Stieg Larsson box set, before the inclusion of the fourth book about the author. Credit: Alfred A. Knopf