Actually, it wasn't a bullet that killed Stieg Larsson. According to Wikipedia, Larsson died on '9 November 2004 in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a heart attack after climbing seven flights of stairs to his office because the lift was not working. There were rumours that his death was in some way induced, because of death threats received as editor of Expo, but these have been denied by Eva Gedin, his Swedish publisher.'

I mention it because in the 2011 Guardian and Observer Books Power 100 'The ghost of Stieg Larsson' is deemed to be more important and influential than  - for instance - Richard & Judy (49) or Dan Brown (64). 

Here at newbooks HQ we've made something of a sport of spotting cover mentions of Stieg on review books we receive. 'South Africa's Stieg Larsson' on one book made us marvel at how well Scandi-crime had travelled. Indeed, one of our featured books, City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris, proudly carries the Times quote 'Competition to Stieg Larsson from an unexpected quarter'.

I wonder whether it's worth a trip to Ladbrokes to see what odds they'll give me on Charles Dickens making a sudden reappearance in next year's list. February 7, 2012 is the bicentennial of his birth but the publicity machine is already cranking up with a piece by Brian Appleyard in yesterday's Sunday Times Culture section. And you can assume there's more to come - perhaps even within our own pages!