Although I’ve visited Norway several times through the books of Karin Fossum, this is my first trip to follow the adventures of Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Department. Book 26 for 2011 is Jo Nesbo‘s The Snowman. While I’ve heard about Nesbo for sometime I never seem to see his books at book sales or at the library. So last week when I saw this one at the library I picked it up and was certainly glad I did! This is the 7th book in the Harry Hole series and at times I thought I missed a little but for the most part I thought that the book stood on its own.
The story revolves around the disappearance of several married women with children in Oslo. The disappearances are accompanied by the presence of a Snowman. Soon Harry Hole an alcoholic inspector with the Oslo Police Department, who is one of the few if not the only policeman with experience catching a serial killer is drawn into the case, after receiving a taunting letter from The Snowman alluding to Harry’s past history tracking a serial killer!
The plot is riveting with several twists and turns throughout the book leading to a very tense last one hundred pages! I enjoyed the character of Harry Hole and will go back and read the other books that are available to discover his full history. I thought that the translation was good and the words flowed well. For me sometimes translations get choppy or overly simplistic!
So until I can pick up another Harry Hole book it’s off to Iceland and another favorite series by Arnaldur Indridason featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson. The book is Arctic Chill and is the fifth book in the series that has been translated and the 7th overall.
