Stieg Larsson passes 1 million Kindle milestone

A customer browses a copy of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's latest book,''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest'', at a Madrid bookstore June 18, 2009.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Stieg Larsson, author of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", has become the first writer to sell more than one million Kindle e-books thanks to his popular mystery Millennium Trilogy novels, online retailer Amazon.com said on Tuesday.

Larsson, who died in 2004 before his novels hit the best-seller list worldwide, was named the first member of the "Kindle Million Club", Amazon.com said.

All three books in the trilogy, whose third installment "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" was first published in Sweden in 2007, are among the top 10 best-selling books Kindle books of all time.

Their print editions have sold more than 27 million copies worldwide and have been translated from their original Swedish into more than 40 languages.

"Larsson's books have captivated millions of readers around the world and ignited a voracious interest in the lives of its main characters Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomqvist," Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content, said in a statement.

Amazon.com, the world's largest online bookseller, launched its Kindle e-reader in 2007. It competes for the growing e-book market with Apple's iPad, Sony's Reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook devices.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)