The snowman by Jo Nesbo

I can promise you one thing; my days of making snowmen are over. No more! The British winter isn’t far away and if one of my neighbours decides to build a snowman in our quiet, secluded street, I’m booking the first flight to Barbados and running! I’m not kidding; this is one hell of a creepy crime thriller! – They don’t have snow in Barbados do they?

Two days ago I entered the world of the snowman and within seven pages I know I was hooked. Psychologically it scared me to death; I guess it had the desired effect!

“We’re going to die” a young lad proclaims in the back of his mother’s car.

Jo Nesbo’s “The Snowman” is without doubt one the best books I have read in the last six months, it has everything. A tight storyline; electrifying pace and imaginative prose; all morphing together to produce a magnificent on the edge of your seat Norwegian thriller. You won’t know who to trust!

The Independent newspaper claims Jo Nesbo is the next Stieg Larsson – I’ll go one further and say Jo Nesbo is the next Jo Nesbo.

Translated by Don Bartlett, The Snowman is the fifth internationally acclaimed novel featuring Inspector Harry Hole.

Soon the first snow will come. And then he will appear again. The Snowman. And when the snow has gone, he will have taken someone else. What you should ask yourself is this; “Who made the snowman”? Who makes snowmen? Who gave birth to the Murris? For the Snowman doesn’t know.

Jonas wakes to a house filled with silence. His father left the night before to catch an overnight flight and when he went to bed he only had his mother and a snowman in the garden for company – A creepy snowman he hadn’t built. He cries out for his mother but when no one answers he walks out into the garden; the snowman is there and so is the pink scarf he gave his mother for Christmas. His mother is missing.

Inspector Harry Hole is called in and the case for the missing woman begins, welcome to a journey of intrigue and suspense! The Snowman is an intellectually complex story, full of the twists and turns you would expect from a bestselling novel. The murders are both gruesome and imaginative and just when I thought I’d read it all, the detectives discover another grisly murder.

The body count continues to rise until the book’s conclusion and just when you think you discover the identity of the serial killer; Nesbo throws a spanner in the works and changes the rules. He doesn’t take advantage of the reader; everything is explained in a wonderful narrative. Although a relatively long book, weighing in at 550 pages, the book reads a lot shorter.

Harry Hole has a lot on his mind; an ex-wife he still loves, a new female detective as his partner and his very personal battle with alcoholism – to catch the killer he has to fight his inner demons, only then will he have the strength to make sense of the brutal slayings.

Both chilling and imperial, The Snowman is an unyielding story that will delight the reader with every turn of the page – guaranteed! Highly recommended, I can’t wait for the next Novel!

Available from Book Depository and Amazon -  the book is published by Random House.