Unlike most people who had read the Millennium Trilogy when it released originally, I just finished reading the series for the first time. As a result the first three books are fresh in my mind. I knew that there would be some natural difference in the characters sketches and narration as The Girl in the Spider's Web is written by David Lagercrantz, carrying on the legacy that was originally created by Stieg Larsson. 
 Mikael and Lisbeth are back! Their paths seem to be at crossroads every time they take a turn. This time around, we find out that Millennium has been taken over by another group and do not want Mikael to be around. So, Mikael is once again on the lookout for a good story that can give a boost to his crumbling career and trying to help a scientist seems like a promising step towards it. But soon Mikael is entangled in a new web of murder and intrigue with some mention of Lisbeth being involved as well. Where will a simple phone call lead Mikael to? And when their paths cross, how will Lisbeth react? Will their partnership work like a charm again? 
 What I loved the most about this book was that while David Lagercrantz kept the essence of the repeating characters intact, he has taken his own liberties with the narration at places. I was surprised to see (read about) Lisbeth's interaction with a kid - while it was quite endearing, I couldn't but help wonder about it. She did feel out of her character at times in this book and that I found a bit bitter to swallow. After all, I love Lisbeth for how she has been developed over the three books and the slight changes did not sit well. The detail oriented plot with many things happening at the same time felt familiar yet there was hint of something new as well. This time around though, the change is for good and I did enjoy it for most part. 
 At the end of the day, the question on everybody's mind is whether this book is as good as any of Stieg Larsson's books. And the answer is Hell No! When an author creates hype with a particular book / plot / character set, sometimes even he himself has trouble keeping up to the expectations. So it is highly unfair to expect something equally good from a completely different person. However, I have to admit that David Lagercrantz has done a good job and while I would never compare this (or its successors) with the original three books, I have no problem in continuing to read this series. It has a quality in its pages that is not easy to come by and I for one am not going to let something good go by, for whatever reasons.