Publishers of the newest Dragon Tattoo novel took some borderline paranoid precautions to guard the book from hackers

(Image credit: Facebook.com/DragonTattoo)

published 21 August 2015

Talk about life imitating art.

Swedish publisher Norstedts is set to publish The Girl in the Spider’s Web — the first Lisbeth Salander novel not written by author Stieg Larsson, who died in 2004 of a heart attack — on Thursday (the U.S. release is Sept. 1). But protecting the manuscript from hackers, who Norstedts expected would be especially drawn to a story about one of their own (Salander is a tech-savvy anti-heroine) led to some very cloak-and-dagger operations, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Norstedts used a code name — "Eva A" — for the project, and when new author David Lagercrantz was brought in to meet with the team about writing for the series, he was shown to a conference room in the publishing house's basement. Once Lagercrantz signed on, he was required to do all of his online research on one computer while writing the actual novel on a separate computer, which he was instructed to keep free from any internet connection.

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Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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