Fifth book in Stieg Larsson series soon

A fifth novel that carries the torch of late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium series is to be published in September, publisher Norstedts says.

Larsson, a journalist turned novelist who died of a heart attack in 2004, achieved posthumous success with his Millennium Trilogy, which kicked off with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and has sold over 80 million copies worldwide.

David Lagercrantz has penned the fourth and now fifth installments in Larsson's series, developing storylines based on Larsson's two main characters: hacker genius Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

Lagercrantz's The Man Who Hunted His Shadow is due to be released simultaneously in 26 countries, including Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States, on September 7. It follows The Girl in the Spider's Web, published in 2015.

Lagercrantz said it was "an enormous responsibility" to continue Larsson's creation, he told daily Dagens Nyheter.

Larsson's trilogy has been made into several films, including a 2011 psychological thriller based on the triology's first novel staring Daniel Craig.