Criticism of Norstedt's decision to have new Wallander books written

On August 28, 2015, Svenska Dagbladet interviews Henning Mankell on the occasion of David Lagercrantz being allowed to write a fourth book about Stieg Larsson's characters and literary universe. Mankell believes that it is not literature that Lagercrantz devotes himself to: "It is the classic tradition of Faust. He sells his own soul for a few kroner."

Other authors are also strongly critical. Maj Sjöwall, who together with Per Wahlöö wrote the books about Martin Beck and his colleagues, says: "It's terrible. That any other person would have taken over our characters is completely unthinkable." Håkan Nesser is asked if it is not a way to give new life to Stieg Larsson's books. Nesser replies: "No. It's clear that Norstedts is defending itself in every possible way and wants to make it look good. But I still think that it's basically a way to make money. It's Norstedt's lost honor."

Now the Norstedts have once again lost their honor. The publisher has persuaded another author to enter Henning Mankell's personal literary universe and write at least two more books about Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda. But the publisher Adam Dahlin hopes that "it will be a significantly longer series than that" (DN 21/9).

I worked for almost 40 years together with Henning Mankell and was his publisher. I was the first he told me that he wanted to write a novel about the increasing racism in Sweden and since "racism is criminal, it will be a crime novel", or as Henning preferred to call it, a novel about a crime. It was to me that he sent his scripts about Kurt Wallander and with me he discussed how Wallander could change and develop and what new problems he would face.

The fact that I, who was appointed in his will to manage his literary legacy, was not asked, indicates that the publisher was quite rightly afraid of what my answer would be. On one point, Henning was crystal clear. There would be no more novels written about Kurt Wallander or his world after he died. Henning even tried to protect himself by having Wallander become demented in the last book. But when it comes to money, both dementia and death stand together.