Battle Over Author's Estate Is a Real Thriller

LONDON (Jan. 27) -- Swedish author Stieg Larsson was a master of the page-turner. His posthumously published "Millennium" novels, including U.S. best sellers "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire," have sold more than 20 million copies around the world, snaring readers and critics with their sordid tales of corruption, abuse and cyber-sleuthing.

Now, more than six years after his death, his estimated $20 million estate is mired in a rancorous public battle between an apparently wronged woman and estranged family members -- a sorry story that could have been pulled straight from one of Larsson's best sellers.

At the heart of this real-life thriller is Eva Gabrielson, an architectural historian and Larsson's partner for more than 30 years. She helped with background research for the "Millennium" trilogy, and supported Larsson when he was earning little as a journalist and high-profile, anti-fascist activist. New revelations made this week in the Danish daily Politiken suggest that Gabrielson may also have played a key role in guiding the novels' plots and prose.

"I didn't just proofread," she told Politiken. "I have a hard time seeing what is solely Stieg and solely me in 'Millennium's' language, contents and so on. It's not about who wrote it down. Or edited."

Whatever her contribution, Gabrielson has so far received nothing from Larsson's estate. The couple were not married when the 50-year-old author died of a massive heart attack in November 2004, a year before his first novel came out. (The third and, by most accounts, last of them, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," will be published in the U.S. in May.) Larsson had previously said he didn't want to marry, as he was worried the trail of paperwork could result in Gabrielson being targeted by far-right extremists. (Sweden's neo-Nazi movement carried out a series of bank raids and murders in the 1990s.)

The author also neglected to write a will. In line with Swedish law, his immediate family inherited everything, as it would under the laws of most countries. Only a few nations, such as New Zealand, Australia and Canada, currently allow cohabiting partners to inherit each other's wealth after living together for a year or two.

In Larsson's case, the fortune and book rights went to his father, Erland, and brother, Joakim -- even though Gabrielson claims he was estranged from both. They also inherited half of the Stockholm apartment Larsson shared with Gabrielson. Not long after his death, she alleges, they offered to trade their share for Larsson's laptop computer, which is rumored to contain 200 pages of an unfinished fourth novel. Internet chat rooms are filled with gossip that the PC may also contain the plots of six more books featuring crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander.

"My legal adviser called it extortion," Gabrielson has said, according to the U.K.'s Guardian. "I refused to hand over the computer."

She has told reporters that his family is clinging to the money and rights, as they never truly understood or approved of Larsson's chosen life. "They simply thought that this was theirs, they finally owned Stieg," she told the Los Angeles Times. "This is their way of getting hold of him again."

Gabrielson's struggle has now become a cause célèbre in Sweden, with a Web site, SupportEva.com, set up to encourage "Millennium" fans to donate to and fund her legal battle with Larsson's family and her campaign to change the country's inheritance law.

However, as always, there is another side to the tale. Larsson's father and brother say that their motives have been distorted by the Swedish media, and that they were never estranged from Larsson. Erland told the L.A. Times in December that he met with his son whenever he visited Stockholm, and that Joakim was also in regular contact with his older brother. Erland has also claimed that it was his concern for Larsson's shaky finances that inspired the "Millennium" series.

"Through the years I told him, 'Write something commercial,'" Erland said. "He was always interested in the criminal world. Whenever he came home, he'd have a bag full of detective books."

Erland and Joakim have said they are happy to share Larsson's legacy with Gabrielson. But they also say they are not willing to hand over all the legal rights to his novels, a request they claim was made in a letter sent by Gabrielson's solicitor. "She wanted some part of the economic rights -- no problem," Joakim said. "But she wanted all the moral rights. And for that, we have to discuss."

In an attempt to end the dispute, the family said last November it would pay Gabrielson nearly $3 million, but she declined the offer.

There will be more twists in the coming months. The ongoing legal clash will return to the headlines with the premiere of a Swedish-language film version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" in U.S. and U.K. theaters this spring. (A Hollywood remake, possibly starring George Clooney, is in the works as well.)

Any fan of Larsson's dark detective stories, though, can already see how this true-life thriller will conclude. Spoiler alert: It won't be a happy ending.