The Son

Book Description

The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption. Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit—or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes.            

Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo’s crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he’s happy to play the criminal and the prison’s in-house savior. 

But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison—and from the person he’d let himself become—and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first—the criminals or the cops?

I've read all but 2 of Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole (pronounced Hoo-lah) series and one stand-alone novel, Headhunters. I rated them 3 and 4 stars.

I first heard about this Norwegian author when I watched more than a year ago the movie Headhunters [currently streaming on Netflix] which I really liked and read the book it is based on. I so loved the book and read all Harry Hole series translated into English, 8 in all.

THE SON is the first of his books that I rated 5 stars. As the book description says, it is electrifying; it's unputdownable. Sonny, referred to frequently as "the son" is a Christ-like character - taking the punishment for other people's crimes/sins in exchange for unlimited heroin supply while in prison. He is calm, doesn't talk much, a great listener, and has a touch that "heals" someone's soul. He is such a lovable person with a zen-like coolness about him, making me want to hug him. I rooted for him in his bloody killing spree to avenge his father's death. Yeah, kill 'em all Sonny! And he did them in spectacular, meticulous manner, they're almost works of art. Although I guessed early on the "mole" he was after, it didn't diminish my enthusiasm and love for the book.

Highly recommended if you don't mind gore, blood, and violence.