The man who played with fire Stieg Larsson's lost files and the hunt for an assassin

Jan Stocklassa

Book - 2019

When Stieg Larsson died, the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had been working on a true mystery that out-twisted his Millennium novels: the assassination on February 28, 1986, of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister. It was the first time in history that a head of state had been murdered without a clue who had done it, and on a Stockholm street at point-blank range. Internationally known for his fictional far-right villains, Larsson was well acquainted with their real-life counterparts and documented extremist activities throughout the world. Larsson's archive was forgotten until journalist Jan Stocklassa was given exclusive access to the author's secret project. Stocklassa collects the pieces of Larsson's true-cr...ime puzzle to follow the trail of intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy begun by one of the world's most famous thriller writers. Together they set out to solve a mystery that no one else could.

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Subjects
Genres
True crime stories
Personal correspondence
Published
Seattle : Amazon Crossing [2019]
Language
English
Swedish
Main Author
Jan Stocklassa (author)
Other Authors
Tara Chace (translator)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
"Previously published as Stieg Larssons arkiv : nyckeln till Palmemordet by Bokfabriken in Sweden in 2018. Translated from the Swedish by Tara F. Chance. First published in English by Amazon Crossing in 2019."--Title page verso.
Physical Description
xv, 488 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781542092944
9781542092937
  • Foreword
  • Editor's Note
  • Prologue
  • The Day of the Assassination
  • The Opposition
  • The Murder Map
  • Sherlock Holmér
  • Victor
  • The Prosecutor's Accusation
  • Deeper into the Archive
  • Status Quo
  • After Chernobyl
  • The Alpha Male
  • Stieg's Tip
  • The Riddle
  • The Minutes
  • Severin
  • Cafés
  • Holmér Strikes Again
  • No, No, Yes
  • Mission: Olof Palme
  • 1987
  • The Stars Align
  • Warning! Warning!
  • Palme's Worst Enemy
  • The Middleman?
  • Between What and What?
  • Deep Wedin
  • Gerry
  • The Right-Wing Extremists
  • Operation Appendix
  • Sweden's Grand Prize for Journalism
  • Hans II
  • Ebbe Picks Up Speed
  • Doubts
  • Profile of a Killer
  • A Suitable Murderer
  • The Killer
  • Trophy
  • Lots of Show, Little to Show for It
  • South Africa, 1996
  • Keystone Cops in Africa
  • Last Chance
  • Stieg's Most Important Battle
  • Eva
  • A New Career
  • Seven Flights
  • Stieg Is Dead
  • Space Syntax
  • The Campaigner
  • The Dead Children #1
  • The Dead Children #2
  • The Double Widow
  • The Librarian
  • The Analysis
  • Lisbeth #1
  • Anna-Lena
  • Lisbeth #2
  • To the Archive
  • Rorschach
  • OCR
  • Moscow Mule
  • GT
  • With the Middleman
  • Wedin-First Day
  • Wedin-Second Day
  • Wedin-Third Day
  • The Delivery
  • Rockets That Will Never Come Again
  • The New Yorker
  • The Composite Photo
  • A Study of Assassination
  • The Dead Children #3
  • Crossing the Rubicon
  • The Heart of Darkness
  • The Wig
  • The Italian Version
  • Patsy
  • Deep State
  • Cui bono?
  • Interrogated
  • The Person Who Saved Sweden
  • The Decision
  • Jakob and Lída
  • Jakob-First Day
  • Jakob-Second Day
  • The Grave
  • Back to the Scene of the Crime
  • Lost
  • Aliyah
  • "M"
  • Revolver
  • Epilogue
  • Afterword
  • List of Characters
  • Thank You!
  • About the Author
  • About the Translator
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Stieg Larsson (1954--2004), the author of the posthumously published The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels, was known in his lifetime as an illustrator and journalist who campaigned vigorously against Sweden's extreme right-wing associations. He meticulously researched the unsolved 1986 assassination of Olaf Palme, the country's prime minister. (Much of Larsson's research on the assassination and right-wing groups is reflected in his novels.) Decades later, journalist Stocklassa's debut tries to identify the killer using Larsson's extensive notes in this engrossing account. The author details his globe-hopping search for the assassin, as the investigation swings from theories of a lone gunman to a vast South African right-wing conspiracy with ties to the Iran-Contra affair. After searching for eight years, including the interrogation of a suspect and consideration of a third party's offer to illegally detain that suspect, Stocklassa thinks he has the answer to who killed the prime minister and why. He has passed information onto the authorities, who are acting on it, and he agrees with the new prosecutor in charge that the Palme case will be solved. Larsson buffs won't want to miss this one. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

On February 28, 1986, Sweden's prime minister, Olaf Palme, was assassinated on Stockholm streets following a theater trip with his wife. The perpetrator is still unknown to this day. Intrigued by the case, the late author Stieg Larsson ("Millennium" series) researched the crime and potential suspects until his death in 2004. At that time, he had amassed an archive of materials, which provide the content and substance of this book by former Swedish diplomat Stocklassa. Having gained exclusive access to Larsson's trove of research, Stocklassa presents an in-depth look into the investigation. Based on the findings, Swedish police now have a suspect for the first time in years. This well-crafted whodunit will keep readers engaged from start to finish. VERDICT Recommended for most true crime collections. This story is sure to gain international traction as the investigation into the Palme assassination heats up again.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A dense examination of a notorious political assassination, as initially sleuthed by popular crime novelist Stieg Larsson.Swedish journalist Stocklassa's meandering book has a convoluted backstory, beginning with the author's access to the files of the Millennium trilogy author, who died in 2004. Prior to his literary career, Larsson was a prolific investigative journalist whose focus on the European extreme right led him to consider the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. "After five years of research," writes Stocklassa, "I found Stieg Larsson's forgotten archives and stepped into a world of people and events that felt like they came right out of one of Stieg's books." Larsson's correspondence and reportage, excerpted here, showed his distrust of official narratives, and he concluded that the chaotic initial investigation of Palme's murder focused on either a lone, disturbed perpetrator or a Turkish insurgent group. This explanation elided the more likely scenario of a connection to Sweden's far-right underground, in concert with South African security forces, who were irritated by Palme's stance against the apartheid regime. Stocklassa initially imagines Larsson's perspective on the increasingly opaque murder even as his literary career approached success right before his death: "A dream for many, but Stieg still wanted other things as well." Stocklassa eagerly reanimated Larsson's investigation, a pursuit that became "my obsession." His efforts are credible and commendable, and he was able to speak to shady figures in South Africa and elsewhere, but the narrative wanders away from the initial sourcing in Larsson's abandoned files. Stocklassa concludes with "a possible picture" of how the assassination occurred, "if, that is, Stieg's theory was right." However, he cannot fill in all the blanks, ruefully concluding, "like Stieg before me, I continue to tug on the strings that stick out from the ball of yarn that is the Palme assassination." In making up for speculation, Stocklassa relies on an overly detailed, verbose, often digressive style.A mostly engrossing but florid historical conspiracy, of most interest to Larsson fans. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.