The Kingdom

tags: Jo Nesbø, mystery, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads 

In a rural village deep in the mountains, mechanic Roy leads a quiet, simple life, but when his little brother Carl, an entrepreneur, returns with a proposal for a grand hotel to revive the struggling town, dark secrets from their childhood threaten to resurface. As children, Roy defended his little brother against schoolyard bullies and vicious rumors, but his loyalty to family is tested when greed and betrayal saturate Carl's plans--not to mention when Roy's sister-in-law Shannon catches his eye. The farther he goes to protect Carl, the more Roy finds himself dredging up the town's shocking past. And when the town sheriff starts looking into Roy and Carl's parents' tragic deaths, Roy will have to reckon with how far he will go to protect his brother.

A tale of the worst family dysfunction I've ever read. Roy and Carl have a sort of love-hate relationship. Roy loves his younger brother and will do everything to protect him, including murder, but he also envies and covets whatever Carl has, almost like a Cain and Abel jealousy. But they stick together for better or for worse like a married couple.

Jo Nesbø again delivers with this new stand-alone novel which has lots of twists and turns. Roy gets out of all unfortunate situations with lots of luck and brilliant planning. 

Highly recommended for Jo Nesbø fans.

The Snowman

 tags: mystery-crime, Norwegian, serial killer



Book description from Goodreads

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.

Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time.

A movie apparently will be made based on this chilling novel and fans started an online discussion as to who will be best to play Harry. Their number one choice is the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård. The movie is originally to be directed by IMHO the most overrated director, Martin Scorsese. I didn't like the idea because he might cast his favorite actor, Leonardo diCaprio as Harry *I shudder at the thought*. Thankfully Scorsese is replaced by Norwegian director, Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) and I hope the producers and director will resist the urge to cast a bankable but "short-in-stature" American actor as Harry Hole.

Let's take a look at Harry's statistics and the only 2 actors that are almost perfect to play him:

Harry Hole
Norwegian

age in The Snowman: almost 40 (born in 1963)

height: 6 feet 2 inches

eye color: blue

hair color: blonde

Trond Espen Seim
Norwegian
43 years old
height: 6 feet 2 inches

eye color: blue

hair color: blonde

I vote yes yes yes to Trond. He may be a few years older but he has the correct height, eyes, and hair. He also has acting credentials as a police detective playing the Norwegian P.I. Varg Veum.  

 

Alexander Skarsgård
Swede
38 years old
height: 6 feet 4 inches

eye color: blue green

hair color: light brown

My second choice. Although Alexander is nearer Harry's age, he's much too pretty and too tall.

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.