Jo Nesbø

Brothers Roy and Carl are seemingly successful businessmen in the small town of Os, Norway. There are tragedies and murders in their history and they will stop at nothing to achieve their dreams, and that includes annihilating anyone who stands in their way.

Darkly complex, morally grim and set within a bleak atmosphere, this is classic Nordic noir. It is a story that holds the reader’s attention throughout with its twists, turns, revelations. It is a tribute to Nesbø’s writing that you just may be rooting for the main antihero to get away with it all.

Blood Ties is a sequel to Nesbø’s The Kingdom, which I have not read; it works well as a standalone. If you are a fan of Nordic noir or want to try it out, add this to your To Be Read list.

Thanks to #NetGalley and @aaknopf for the DRC.… (more)

This has a great cover and a great first few chapters. I loved the phone booth and the missing friend. The story is, initially, told a bit strange. It had few details and felt more like an outline. Part 1 didn't draw me in and I definitely didn't like the main character.

But Part 2 started to pull the story together. It had more meat the story and gave us a better understand of who everyone was. . .until it, too, went off the rails. By Part 3, I wasn't invested in the story anymore. Parts 1 and 2 just left me so confused, I was just going through the motions to get the book finished. I really wished I'd liked it more. If there had been more phone booth and less relationship drama, I may have enjoyed it more.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.… (more)

"Love is a greater mystery than death. And you have to watch out for snakes."

This was an overall good book but it definitely had a few odd and slow parts. I enjoyed meeting Harry Hole (or Holy as the whole of Australia enjoyed calling him). He is pulled to Australia from Norway to oversee the investigation of a Norwegian that was murdered there. I enjoyed the beginning as we met a huge cast of characters and started the investigation.

I didn't, however enjoy the love story at all. It was needlessly wordy, descriptive and a bit silly. Then the whole falling off the wagon - that was awful and seemed to go on forever. Once the case was finally solved, I was completely done with the story. I will keep going but hopefully each story doesn't follow this outline.… (more)

“What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?”

What an odd story. A hit man is hired to kill a very important person. He knows his knowledge of even the request is enough to have him killed. He won't make it out of this hit. So he tries to come up with another plan of action. It was interesting to get to know the hitman but the story felt a bit disjointed and I wasn't fully immersed in the story. We only got to glance at the characters before we were moving on. I did enjoy the writing but I'm not sure I'll keep reading the series.… (more)