I have read two books this week, both by Jo Nesbo. Now I have finally caught up with his entire Harry Hole series. I can’t wait until the next one is published! I think it will be called Knife and is due to be released this year.

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo

The Redeemer is #06 in the Harry Hole sequence (I have been filling in the gaps, as it were). Here is the blurb:

Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. A gunshot cuts through the music and the bitter cold: one of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range. Harry Hole—the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and worst civil servant—has little to work with: no suspect, no weapon, and no motive. But Harry’s troubles will multiply. As the search closes in, the killer becomes increasingly desperate, and Harry’s chase takes him to the most forbidden corners of the former Yugoslavia.

Yet it’s when he returns to Oslo that he encounters true darkness: among the homeless junkies and Salvationists, eagerly awaiting a savior to deliver them from misery—whether he brings new life or immediate death.

This is my short four star review on Goodreads:

Nesbo is such a clever writer. I enjoy his dark humour, his asides that give such great colour and background to the plot. This book is one of his darkest as Harry Hole is in such a bad state. I am not sure if I would want to know such a character in real life as he would be so difficult to get along with, because, whilst his flashes of brilliance are simply compelling, his obsessions are hard to live with.

This story is complex, sometimes hard to follow, but ultimately really worth reading. There are always good plot twists in the series. Although each book works as a standalone tale, it is worth reading the series in order (unlike me!) as the main characters’ stories are interwoven throughout.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

After The Redeemer I was able to read the next book in the series: The Snowman. This is the blurb:

Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf.

Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer.

This book was even better than the previous one. I gave it four stars and wrote the following:

Wow! This was a truly great read. If you like a book with complex and often difficult characters, very dark humour, some very bleak events and huge plot twists then this is definitely worth a look. The book begins with scenes which are quite difficult to get straight in your mind, there are also several very red herrings. The end is extremely good and very scary!

After reading another Harry Hole, I am beginning to feel as if I am getting to know Oslo, at least the underworld of Oslo. I like how Nesbo writes small asides that give a wider picture of life in the city and surrounding areas.

I think that this is one of the best books in the series. Highly recommended.

Mageborn by Stephen Aryan

I am now about the begin my new book: Mageborn by Stephen Aryan, #01 in his Age of Dread series. This sounds as if it will be rather dark too!

Happy Reading to you all.

Best wishes,

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