Jo Nesbo

 

The best recent thrillers – review roundup

A chain of child abductions, a suspicious death by drowning and a cult’s mass suicide. Plus, the latest in the Harry Hole series

Alison Flood
Tuesday 16 July 2019

The Chain

Adrian McKinty
Orion, £12.99, pp368

Adrian McKinty’s explosively brilliant The Chain opens as a 13-year-old girl, Kylie, is kidnapped from a bus stop as she checks the likes on her Instagram feed. A policeman is shot dead by the kidnappers a couple of pages later, but it’s quickly clear this is not your typical kidnapping crime. Then Kylie’s mum, Rachel, gets a call, and it all starts to become horribly, terrifyingly clear: Kylie’s kidnapping is just the latest in a chain that stretches back years. If Rachel kidnaps another child and pays a ransom, and her victim’s parents then abduct another child, Kylie will be released. If she doesn’t, Kylie will be killed. “It’s that simple,” she’s told. “That’s how The Chain works and goes on for ever.” This is genuinely unputdownable, as Rachel follows “the thread into the heart of the labyrinth”. McKinty’s brilliance lies in exploring just how far a parent will go to rescue their child. These are people committing dreadful crimes – crimes they are horrified by – but they carry them out nonetheless. Terribly plausible.

Lady in the Lake

Laura Lippman

Faber, £12.99, pp352“Maddie Schwartz, pushing 40, has nothing to look forward to,” observes one of the characters in Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake. Maddie thinks otherwise, leaving her husband and son to work on the local Baltimore newspaper. She is desperate for a byline – “ambition comes off this one like heat”, says one man – but this is 1966. She lacks experience and isn’t taken seriously. Maddie is “the kind of woman who laughs at men’s jokes even when they’re not funny”. But when she finds out that the body of a black woman, Cleo Sherwood, has been discovered in a fountain, and that no one else seems to care, she starts to investigate, using every tool at her disposal to pick away at the dangerous secrets and closed ranks that surround this story. Lippman is such a skilful writer, her narrative flitting between perspectives to bring 1960s Baltimore, a world of racial tensions and sexual inequality, to vivid life.

The Poison Garden

Alex Marwood
Sphere, £12.99, pp400

The body count is ridiculously high within the first few pages of Alex Marwood’s The Poison Garden, as police officers discover a mass suicide at a survivalist, doomsday cult in the Welsh mountains. Only a few members of the cult have survived, among them 22-year-old Romy, who is pregnant and trying to navigate the confusing realities of our world, and her two younger siblings, “orphans of a storm created by other people’s wicked choices”. Moving between timelines, Marwood slowly elucidates the world Romy grew up in, where the children are taught about the dangers of “yew trees and foxgloves and deadly nightshade… adders and hemlock and unwashed wounds” as soon as they can talk, where strange mating rituals and death from tetanus are commonplace. In the present day, Romy learns more about who her mother was and what she ran away from to join the cult, and gradually the reasons for all this death become clearer.

Knife

Jo Nesbo
Harvell Secker, £20, pp544

Jo Nesbo says that he’s “been brutal to Harry before but never this brutal”. He’s not kidding: in the latest Harry Hole novel, the 12th in the series, the Norwegian detective is wallowing in epic amounts of Scandi noir. Back on the booze and facing the worst loss of his life, Harry is in a very dark place. As he sets out to solve a killing – and to face off against an old enemy, Svein Finne, who is out of prison and wreaking havoc – he knocks back industrial amounts of alcohol to numb the pain, has dazzling moments of intuition and charms most of the women whose paths he crosses, despite reeking of stale booze. The twists play out brilliantly; the translation by Neil Smith is flawless. This is the king of Norwegian crime on top form. Fans might only ask he give his protagonist a little less of a brutal ride next time round.

THE GUARDIAN

The Son by Jo Nesbo / Review

 

THE SON 

BY JO NESBØ

TRANSLATED BY CHARLOTTE BARSLUND ‧

 RELEASE DATE: MAY 13, 2014

One of Nesbø’s best, deepest and richest novels, even without Harry Hole.

Adeftly plotted novel that probes the deepest mysteries: sin, redemption, love, evil, the human condition.

After he seemingly brought Harry Hole back from the dead in his last novel  (Police, 2013), Norway’s Nesbø gives his popular protagonist a breather, shelving the detective in favor of a stand-alone novel that plunges deeply into the religious allegory that has frequently framed his work (The Redeemer, 2013). In fact, the symbolism might initially seem laid on pretty thick for readers looking to solve a satisfying whodunit. Sonny Lofthus, the son of the title, is introduced as a prisoner with “healing hands,” one who was “prepared to take your sins upon himself and didn’t want anything in return.” Like Christ, he suffers for the sins of others and offers redemption. He is also a hopeless junkie. His back story suggests that Sonny was a boy of considerable promise, a champion wrestler and model student, proud son of a police officer. Then, when he was 18, he was devastated by the suicide of his father, who left a note confessing his corruption as the mole within the department, and the subsequent death of his heartbroken mother. After Sonny turned to drugs, he found himself in a web of evil; if he would confess to murders he hadn’t committed, the corrupt prison system would keep him supplied with heroin. Then a fellow prisoner comes to him for confession and reveals a secret that turns Sonny’s world upside down, inspiring him to kick his habit, plot an ingenious escape and turn himself into an “avenging angel,” delivering lethal retribution. The inspector obsessed with the case had a complicated relationship with Sonny’s father, and it remains uncertain until the climax (in a church, naturally) whether he wants to be Sonny’s captor or his collaborator. It’s a novel in which one character muses on “how innocence walks hand-in-hand with ignorance. How insight never clarifies, only complicates.”

One of Nesbø’s best, deepest and richest novels, even without Harry Hole.

KIRKUS

The Son by Jo Nesbø review – revenge, corruption and violence that fail to convince

Val McDermid just can't believe this Norwegian thriller

Val McDermid

Thursday 15 May 2014

To read crime fiction contentedly requires a hefty suspension of disbelief, and some books require a more substantial letting go of credence than others. Unfortunately Jo Nesbø's latest novel, translated by Charlotte Barslund, falls into that category. It displays both narrative flair and compelling forward motion – which explains why Hollywood is already developing it for the big screen – but I struggled to accept either the set-up or the characters who carry it to its all-too-predictable conclusion.

 

Review: Jo Nesbo, in ‘Blood on Snow,’ Tries a New Kind of Hero

By Michiko Kakutani

• April 8, 2015

Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole novels have established him as perhaps the noirest of Scandinavia’s current wave of noir writers. Harry is, as Mr. Nesbo has noted, a “kind of black hole, where everything is kind of pulled in, and nothing escapes.” A brilliant Oslo police detective, Harry is also a troubled lone wolf who has a lot in common with the criminals he pursues.

Jo Nesbo / Blood on Snow / Review by Mathew Haynes

 

Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø

Mathew Haynes
25 November 2015

I originally picked up this book off a book-sharing shelf in a café in Tigaki, Kos. However, I found to my dismay upon closer inspection that it was written in the original Norwegian so I put it back on the shelf and forgot about it until I was asked to build up my Amazon wish list for my birthday and found that it was being sold at a reasonable price given how short it is.

 

Blood On Snow review – Jo Nesbø introduces a hitman with a heart

A killer is employed to take out his boss’s wife in the chart-topping novelist’s pacy thriller. Just don’t expect another Harry Hole

Alison Flood
Monday 20 April 2015

Olav is a fixer. Usually, he “fixes” people – Jo Nesbø’s new novel opens as he stands over a man he’s shot in the chest and neck, blood dripping on to the snow. And he’s just been asked to fix his crime lord boss’s beautiful, unfaithful wife.

As well as people, though, Olav also fixes stories, giving us an alternative take on Les Misérables, because “the business about stealing bread just annoyed me… So: Jean Valjean was a deadly killer who was wanted throughout France. And he was in love with Fantine, the poor prostitute.” And, the reader increasingly suspects, this not entirely reliable narrator is fixing the narrative of his own life.

'I’d say 90% of the book is an accurate description of Oslo as a city, but if the things I need for my ­stories aren’t there, I’ll put them there' … Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø. Photograph: Alexander Widding

Interview

Jo Nesbø interview: 'The thing about Scandinavia is that we take things for granted. Things can change very fast'

Norway's best-selling writer on why in the 'happy valley' of one of the richest countries in Europe, nothing – even a Russian invasion – is unthinkable

Susanna Rustin
Friday 4 April 2014

Norway's bestselling writer is ensconced, back against the wall, in a smart bar on a residential west Oslo street. It is 9am and pouring with rain.

 

The Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø, who is behind the idea for Occupied, which imagines
Russia invading Norway. Photograph: Linda Nylind

TV drama depicting Russian invasion premieres in Norway

This article is more than 6 years old

Norwegian thriller Occupied has been condemned by Moscow and is likely to tap into fears in Scandinavian countries of Russian aggression

David Crouch in Gothenburg

Fri 2 Oct 2015 16.24 BST

Russian commandos have kidnapped the prime minister. The Russian tricolour is flying over the capital. Citizens must decide whether they will collaborate with the occupation, or resist.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo / An Excerpt

 

The Redbreast

By Jo Nesbo

Chapter One

Toll Barrier at Alnabru. 1 November 1999.

A grey bird glided in and out of Harry's field of vision. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Slow time. Somebody had been talking about 'slow time' on TV yesterday. This was slow time. Like on Christmas Eve before Father Christmas came. Or sitting in the electric chair before the current was turned on.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo / Review

 

The complete review's Review

The Redbreast centres around Harry Hole, and begins with the justifiable but inconvenient mistake he makes that leads to his promotion to Inspector in the Norwegian Security Service. (This is the second Harry Hole-novel to appear in English, but in their infinite wisdom the British and American publishers are bringing them out in what appears to be completely random order.) Harry is your usual problem-character -- a brilliant investigator, with a fondness for the bottle and some emotional baggage. He's not very social, and having his own office at the end of a hall where he can cloister himself suits him fine. Among the few people he can work with is his (former) police partner, Ellen.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo / The Fascist's Revenge

 

The Fascist's Revenge

By Patrick Anderson,

Monday, December 10, 2007

THE REDBREAST
By Jo Nesbo
Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Harper. 519 pp. $24.95

The publisher of Jo Nesbo's "The Redbreast" reports that it was voted "Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written" by members of Norwegian book clubs. I am not qualified to comment on that judgment, nor will I venture any dumb jokes about it, but will say that this is a fine novel, ambitious in concept, skillful in execution and grown-up in its view of people and events. In important ways it's also a political novel, one concerned with the threat of fascism, in Norway and by implication everywhere. All in all, "The Redbreast" certainly ranks with the best of current American crime fiction.

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø / Review by Kristopher Cook

 

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø

Reviewed: 21st November 2019
by Kristopher Cook

Synopsis: 

The Redbreast is a chilling tale of murder and betrayal that ranges from the battlefields of World War Two to the streets of modern-day Oslo. Follow Hole as he races to stop a killer and disarm a ticking time-bomb from his nation’s shadowy past.

Series: Harry Hole

Genre: Thriller

Shooting an American agent during a joint-protection operation would find most people in hot water, however, Harry Hole isn’t most people.

Jo Nesbø / The Redeemer / An Extract

THE REDEEMER

by Jo NesbØ

BIOGRAPHY

An Extract

‘Who is this that comes from Edom, coming from Bozrah, his garments stained crimson? Who is this, in glorious apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, who announce that right has won the day, it is I,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am mighty to save.’ Isaiah, 63:1

Part One: Advent

August 1991. The Stars.

She was fourteen years old and sure that if she shut her eyes tight and concentrated she could see the stars through the roof.

Jo Nesbo / The Redeemer / Review by Matthew Haynes

Jo Nesbo

 The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo

BIOGRAPHY

Mathew Haynes
27 April 2015

Posted by couchmagpie

I was so impressed with Nesbo’s writing that I began reading The Redeemer immediately on completion of the earlier Harry Hole novel The Devil’s Star.

Being a big Bond fan I was not surprised that Hole’s relationship with Rakel has come to an end between the books. The idea that Hole had finally got his girl at the end of Devil’s Star was at least a lot more tentative than Fleming’s assertions that appeared at the end of most of his novels. She has started seeing a doctor and remains distant from Hole for most of the book which is understandable given what her son was put through in the previous book. It’s pretty par for the course for the main male character in this type of book not to be in a steady relationship. In comparison Hole’s relationship with alcohol is little more under control for most of this book although he does have the odd wobble from time to time.

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo / Review

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo

BIOGRAPHY

Ben East

Sundady 25 October 2009

Amaverick detective with a drink problem and predilection for pop music, solving murder cases in the underbelly of a beautiful city: Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole is so Rebus it hurts. But for all the crime cliches and hilarious cliffhangers, The Redeemer is an enjoyably chilly manhunt through Oslo's wintry streets, as the curmudgeonly hero tracks down a Croatian hitman who has seemingly shot the wrong brother. For once, this isn't a gangland murder; it is set instead amid the more refined circles of the Norwegian Salvation Army. But what could have been a taut 350-page thriller is bogged down by reams of unnecessary explanation and masses of psychiatric babble. This fourth instalment in the Hole series is often great fun, but overlong.

THE GUARDIAN

The Leopard by Jo Nesbø / Review by Glenn Harper

 

Jo Nesbo

The Leopard

by Jo Nesbø

BIOGRAPHY

Friday 22 April 2011

The eagerly awaited sequel to Jo Nesbø's previous Harry Hole novel (The Snowman) has arrived in English (translated by Don Bartlett). The first question that the book raises is "serial-killer-porn," because of the manner of death of the earliest and some other victims of an unknown killer who ultimately becomes known as "Prince Charming": a torture device with interesting links to the colonial excesses of Europe's African adventures: a device whose lethal power is described at length at the beginning of the novel.

I can't pretend to present any illumination for the sadistic aspects of most serial killer fiction, or Nesbø's particular use of the trope, but I can reassure potential readers that the viciousness of the early passages of The Leopard do not make up the largest part of the novel. If the sadism had continued, it would have been difficult to continue with what is overall a very well written, well constructed crime novel, fully on par with Nesbø's best work.

Jo Nesbo / The Leopard / Review by Mathew Haynes

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo

 BIOGRAPHY

Posted by couchmagpie

Mathew Haynes

Having quit the police after the nightmarish events of The Snowman we find Harry Hole using opium and gambling in Hong Kong to try and ween himself off alcohol. Great plan Harry, way to go. Meanwhile back in Norge, women are being brutally killed using a (fictional) torture device called ‘Leopold’s Apple’ which when inserted into the mouth and activated shoots spring loaded spikes into the victims head. Pretty gory stuff reminiscent of the Saw series of films and brutal even for Nesbo.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbø / Review by Laura Wilson

 

The Leopard by Jo Nesbø

BIOGRAPHY

Laura Wilson goes on a Nordic murder spree

Laura Wilson
Saturday 22 January 2011

S

ince The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was published in 2008, there's been something of a Nordic noir bonanza in this country, with every new Scandinavian crime novel, whether good, bad or indifferent, being engulfed in a blizzard of hyperbole, and every author trailed as "the next Stieg Larsson". While this label is neither intelligent nor helpful, it is probably fair to say that, in terms of both critical and commercial success, Norwegian Jo Nesbø is the writer to whom it is the most applicable.

Knife by Jo Nesbo / Review by Matthew Haynes

Knife 

by Jo Nesbo

BIOGRAPHY

Posted by couchmagpie

Matthew Haynes

14 March 2020

It would be impossible for me to write a post about Jo Nesbo’s new Harry Hole thriller Knife without entering spoiler territory, so please (please please) don’t go any further with reading this if you intend to read the book because, while I’ll try and skirt around most, there’s one major spoiler I really can’t avoid here.

That out of the way, the first thing to note is that Knife is very much a sequel to The Thirst. It should be clear to all fans of Nesbo’s Harry Hole books by now that they follow an ongoing chronological sequence. What I’d also like to make clear from the start is that I think that this is his best book of the dozen Harry Hole books Nesbo has written so far and in a completely different galaxy form the disappointing side project Macbeth.