Post Mortem: A Mystery

by David Lagercrantz

From the bestselling writer of The Girl in the Spider's Web comes another mystery led by detective duo Rekke and this time, their hunt for a serial killer has a literary twist.

It’s 1988. Dag and his friend Pompe are on a road trip through Europe. As they speed through French towns and Basque villages in Dag’s red BMW convertible, they party and discuss Celine, Hemingway, and Leonard Cohen. But when Pompe's drinking gets more intense, a darker side emerges. In the Spanish port city of Santander, Pompe and Dag meet a young waitress, Sandra. She has dreams of becoming a writer and is smitten by the two intellectual Scandinavians, especially Pompe, who represents the literary lifestyle she longs for. Before Dag goes home to Sweden, he decides to tell Sandra what Pompe might be capable of...

Now it's November 2008, back in Stockholm. We’re reintroduced to Professor Hans Rekke and his detective partner Micaela Vargas, who has a new boyfriend she hasn't yet told Rekke about. They receive a surprise visit from a Spanish police chief inspector who is haunted by the unsolved, brutal murder of a young woman in Santander in the late ‘80s, and believes this case is connected to others. Could there be a serial killer on the loose, who leaves numerical codes on the bodies of his victims? Can Rekke help decipher these signs before the killer strikes again?

Post Mortem switches between these two timelines, taking us into the last day of Sandra’s life, and Rekke and Vargas’s search for clues, which lead them by turns to an egomaniac writer, a widely loathed literary agent, and ultimately to Sandra's posthumously published short story. In yet another intricate and exciting puzzle mystery, David Lagercrantz draws on the literary world that he—and we—know all too well to tell a story about guilt, shame, repressed memories, human depravity, and publishing.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

352 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication August 25, 2026

About the author

David Lagercrantz, born in 1962, is a journalist and author, living in Stockholm. His first book was published in 1997, a biography of the Swedish adventurer and mountaineer Göran Kropp. In 2000 his biography on the inventor Håkan Lans, A Swedish Genious, was published. His breakthrough as a novelist was Fall of Man in Wilmslow, a fictionalised novel about the British mathematician Alan Turing. In David Lagercrantz' writing you can often see a pattern: major talents who refuse to follow convention. He has been interested not only in what it takes to stand out from the crowd, but also in the resistance that such creativity inevitably faces.

In 2011 his best-selling sports biography I am Zlatan Ibrahimović was published, one of the most successful books in Sweden in modern times. The biography was nominated for the prestigious August Prize in 2012, as well as shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. To date, the book has been published in over 30 languages around the world and been sold in millions of copies.

In the summer of 2013, Lagercrantz was asked by Moggliden (the Larsson Estate) and Norstedts to write the fourth, free-standing sequel to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. The Girl in the Spider's Web was published – in August 27, 2015 – simultaneously by 26 publishers (in 24 languages) worldwide, ten years after the Swedish publication of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Stieg Larsson's three Millennium novels have sold more than 82 Million copies to date, by 52 publishers worldwide. The Girl in the Spider's Web is sold to 47 publishers and more than 6 Million copies have been sold worldwide.

Reviews

[Gia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's taken over a month to write this review. Post Mortem by David Lagercrantz peaked my interest from the synopsis of the cold case Rekke & Vargas would be working on. And to the implication that the book(s) and characters were inspired by Sherlock Homles mysteries.

And when I began reading and discovered that Vargas's character had immigrated to Sweden I was even more excited.

However, the heavy racism in the book was harder to stomach than the murder case from over a decade earlier. And I got the impression that Micaela and her boyfriend(?) were just plot devices to be used to make the story have some sort of impact?

The suggestions and comments from Rekke's brother and other characters were consumed by the political and social conflicts within the US and Iran around 2008. And I never really felt I got a hold of the reasoning for this other than plot.

Or perhaps the original text is older than I thought and it was only just translated recently.

But even so, Vargas's character is passive. I forgot about her until she would re-appear in a chapter. Side note: in my opinion, physical pain and symptoms a woman experiences is not a forte for this author.

Rekke sets off on this manic fixation to connect other cold cases to this unknown killer.

While simultaneously we are shown the moments leading up to the murder from the victim and a suspicious third party person.

The pacing is inconsistent. I didn't feel any real tension until the last few pages when the murder was going to strike again.

It was all a bit too confused for me.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

✦ Book Review: Post Mortem: A Mystery (Rekke Series #3) by David Lagercrantz
✧ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ, @AAKnopf
➤ 𝚂𝚈𝙽𝙾𝙿𝚂𝙸𝚂
In 1988 Spain, an aspiring writer named Sandra is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Twenty years later, Professor Hans Rekke and police officer Micaela Vargas become involved when a Spanish investigator believes Sandra's death may be connected to a series of other murders. As they revisit the decades-old case, strange numerical clues and Sandra's own writing begin to reveal connections that suggest something far more complicated than a single unsolved murder.
➤ 𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝚂
There is a good mystery buried inside Post Mortem, and the cold case, strange clues, and connections between past and present gave me enough to keep reading. Where the book lost me somewhat was the amount of contemporary social commentary woven into the characters and story. Some of the portrayals of men and women felt unnecessarily one-sided to me, and after a while it began pulling my attention away from the mystery itself. I read fiction largely as an escape from the arguments and divisions we're already surrounded by in everyday life, so I tend to prefer when the characters and mystery are allowed to take center stage. That will probably bother some readers far less than it did me, and underneath it all Lagercrantz still delivers an interesting case with enough complexity to keep things moving. I didn't dislike the book, but I came away wishing it had spent more time on the mystery and less time reminding me of the world I was trying to escape for a few hours.

[Elisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first volume in this series, I wasn’t a fan of the second book and this third one was definitely not for me. Hans Rekke is an original take on Mr. Holmes. He is bipolar (a possible diagnosis for the original character) and brilliant. He has a sidekick who helps him see the truth (though Micaela is more than a Watson… she’s smart) and a shady brother. This time, he investigates a cold case from Spain, that could lead to a more immediate danger and a possible serial killer. There is nothing wrong with the plot, the writing or the translation but, as a matter of personal preference, I didn’t enjoy this novel. It was too slow for me, with too many internal dialogues, conversations about people’s feelings, and not enough action. It may be that there is an abused dog at the heart of the mystery. It’s symbolic, but based on very real cases, and I just don’t want to read about that. And the characters keep going back again and again, rehashing the pain of the unnamed pooch. I’m aware that there are also humans murdered in these pages so, like I said, it may not be the book but me. There is also a political subplot that didn’t mesh with the rest, and that slowed the action even more. I’m happy to see that other readers enjoyed it more. It was not for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Knopf.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a Nordic noir, Post Mortem (2026) by David Lagercrantz focuses on the lives of Hans Rekke and Micaela Vargas. It’s 2008 and the recent Presidential election brightens a gloomy Swedish winter. Rekke is consulted by a Spanish police Inspector who failed to solve a brutal murder in 1988. Twenty years later, Rekke and Vargas discover links to multiple other murders and suspect it’s the work of a Swedish citizen. There is also a literary connection, so the detectives search the writing community for a possible suspect. Meanwhile, Vargas is keeping her new relationship a secret from Rekke, whose focus is always on the crime puzzle. The narrative switches back and forth in time in a quality crime tale, which is a fine standalone read with a four star rating. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without any inducement.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this story Micaela and Rekke don't seem to hit it off while their alter egos seem to function quite well. Micaela's body seems to be infallible with losing a child and getting knifed up. Pompe and Pontus are the same person and Popov is another person that hates women and likes to break their fingers. This said, I don't like all the bad people with the name starting in P. It's rather confusing when you're reading the story. But it is a fast paced book with all the bad guys giving off their worst feelings. Plus Rekke seems to be under some kind of drug and is quite the guy to be seen. The book is really quite good and the story can continue with his missing sister sho he's never heard of.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this series! This one is so good that I didn’t want to stop reading. An intriguing storyline, interesting but complex characters, a vicious murder that sets the protagonists on a serpentine path on the search for a malevolent killer, and enough twist and turns to make you dizzy….an amazing read.

The ending? Oh my goodness! It will leave you breathless. I can’t wait until the next one.

[Naima Westberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good and fast pace - you didn’t get bored and wasn’t to character focused