I wasn’t sure about this book as I had tried to read one of Nesbo’s Harry Hole series called The Redbreast and found it difficult to get into. But this was a gift and so, there is added importance and it should be given a go. And I’m glad I did because it was an excellent read.
Jon Hansen is on the run and we get to learn why during the course of the book as Nesbo takes us, through flashbacks, back into Hansen’s past. He is a young man who finds himself in a small Norwegian town called Kåsund, arriving there by bus.
It is clear that Jon has chosen an unusual place in which to disembark from the bus: small, barren place with no real signs of the civilisation that Jon has been used to in Oslo. He meets Mattis, a local oddbod as soon as he comes off the bus and Mattis plays an important role in Jon’s future happiness.
Despite its remoteness, Jon is pursued there and there is a showdown as you’d expect. But Jon has more to lose than his life as he has met a lady called Lea and her son Knut, and harbours hopes of a future with both of them. But is it just a pipe dream?
Nesbo has written a well-paced tale which crackles at all times, in its plot development, its dialogue, its premise. Jon is involved with drugs but Nesbo presents us with a moral dilemma: Jon acts wrongly but for a very real motive and whilst it is easy to judge, as a detached reader, placing yourself in Jon’s situation, makes you ask yourself “What would I do?”
This tale is tense but has a certain quirkiness in its character creation and development making it light at times, despite being a story of escape, pursuit and possible redemption. There is a lot of violence, veiled and otherwise, which from my experience, seems to be fairly typical of Scandinavian fiction, whether books or TV.
I would recommend this book. It surprised me and has made me more open to reading Nesbo in future. In some ways, it is just a simple story well-told but, in my experience, these can be the best because it’s all about the story and how vivid it is -it doesn’t have to be literary to be great.
A highly recommended read.
Scuffed Granny 