Larry Grieco, Librarian.  As is more and more common these days, a best-selling author dies and his or her work is carried on by another writer. When Stieg Larsson died, the renowned Swedish author of the “Millennium” series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) had his characters live on, in a book by David Lagercrantz. The new offering is called The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

The story centers around two of Larsson’s familiar protagonists, Lisbeth Salander, “genius hacker and uncompromising misfit,” and Mikael Blomkvist, “crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.” Blomkvist writes for a magazine in Stockholm called Millennium, and at a time when he is in need of a scoop, he gets a late-night phone call from a source claiming to have “information vital to the United States.” The source cites a “young female superhacker,” one, it turns out, that Blomkvist knows all too well. He turns to Salander for help and they both go in search of a secret entangled in a web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world. Look for danger at every turn of the page in this new thriller.

Jack Fredrickson is a mystery writer who created the private detective Dek Elstrom. Chicago is Dek’s stomping ground and he returns in his fifth installment, The Confessors’ Club, about a series of murders in the city of Chicago. The victims are all rich and powerful. In fact, they pretty much control what happens in the city. Now, one of the victims turns out to be Dek’s ex-father-in-law, and Dek’s ex-wife, Amanda, begs him to investigate. Against his better instincts, he takes the case—no surprise—he always gives in when it comes to Amanda. Fredrickson’s books are always a little quirky, due mainly to a cast of exotic characters, but his puzzles are intricate and entertaining. There’s also much humor woven into the story. Who could ask for anything more? Several of his “Dek Elstrom” books have been nominated for Shamus Awards.

Then we have Robert Crais. Called by The Philadelphia Inquirer “one of those rare, treasured writers, who combines genuine humanity with tales of crime and detection,” Crais has attracted and retained a huge following among hard-boiled detective enthusiasts. His characters are Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, the kind of heroes who never break a promise, even if it can get them killed. At the beginning of The Promise, Elvis, who was hired to find a grief stricken-mother, visits an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park, where he finds an odd assortment of characters.

One is a fugitive on the run from the police, and another is a “vicious career criminal with dangerous secrets of his own.” At the same time the police are closing in on the house, having tracked the fugitive there. One murder later, the dangerous Mr. Rollins is at large and poised for more killings. Elvis and Joe are joined by Scott James and his K-9 partner, Maggie, and they endeavor to sort all this out, while hoping to stay alive in the process. Associated Press: “Crais is one of the masters of modern crime fiction.”

The schedule is set for the new film series. A complete schedule, with dates and times, is available in the library as well as on the library’s website and Facebook page.