Millennium writer's partner wants to finish series

The longtime partner of the late Swedish writer of the Millennium trilogy crime thrillers has said she could finish the fourth novel in the series if she secures the rights to them.

Eva Gabrielsson has been locked in an ongoing battle with the family of Stieg Larsson, who died in November 2004 from a heart attack. He died before he could see the massive global success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

All three were turned into films in Sweden and are currently being adapted by Hollywood, with Daniel Craig in the role of crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as his tough-as-nails computer hacker girlfriend Lisbeth Salander.

In a memoir to be published in Sweden, Norway and France next week, Gabrielsson reveals that Larsson had just finished 200 pages in the series' fourth instalment before dying.

The couple, who had been together for 32 years, collaborated on the novels, according to Gabrielsson.

"I am able to finish it," she says in excerpts released to some media this week.  "Stieg and I often wrote together."

While unwilling to divulge details of the plot, she did provide one glimpse: "I want to say that Lisbeth, little by little, frees herself from her ghosts and her enemies."

Offered seat on board managing rights to Larsson's work

The pair never married in order to make it harder for neo-Nazis to track them down. Larsson headed the staff of the magazine Expo, which investigated far-right groups and neo-Nazis in Sweden.

Gabrielsson said the staff were constantly on the move in order to "escape the Nazis who were harassing them."

As a result of the decision not to marry, Gabrielsson was not handed Larsson's assets upon his death. Under Swedish law, all assets, including copyright, went to his father and brother.

Gabrielsson has since been fighting for control over those assets. She turned down his family's offer of $2.75 million as well as a seat on the board that manages rights to her partner's work.

In the memoir, co-written with French journalist Marie-Françoise Colombani, she lashes out at what she calls "the Stieg Larsson industry and brand" and says she'd like to "see the real Stieg respected."