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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
A great psychological thriller. Excellent plot twists and turns. Hard to put down.
So Jo Nesbo CAN write great books without my favorite character, Harry Hole!
Headhunters is a wonderfully fun romp through a few short hours in the life of Roger Brown, a vertically-challenged, ultra-successful recruiter (headhunter) for a small company called Alfa. Despite his small stature, Roger has managed to secure a beautiful, smart and tall blonde wife, Diana, who loves him completely. Or does she? In order to continually prove himself worthy of the lovely Diana, Roger gives her everything she wants (or what he thinks she wants), except the one thing she truly wants: a child. Despite his success as a recruiter, Roger's finances are a shambles due to his need to 'buy' Diana's love, and so, he becomes an art thief to supplement his income. But one day, Roger meets his whale - the one recruit that can turn his financial life around: Clas Greve. Not only is Clas PERFECT for a high-profile and high commission-paying position at Pathfinder, a Norwegian tech firm looking for a new leader, Clas is also in possession of a rare, and previously-thought lost, Rubens painting. Between the commission for placing Clas at Pathfinder and the money a fence will pay for the Rubens, Roger will have it made. And then everything goes wrong!
Headhunters has all the things I loved about the Harry Hole novels, minus Harry: wry humor, plenty of twists and turns, infidelity, near misses of the most wonderful sort, excellent research, and a flawed main character - one that you both love and dislike! I also love that he brings together the worlds of art, high tech, police procedure, recruiting services, elite military service, dog breeds, and security systems. A motley crew, and yet, they all serve the story well.
Bravo, Mr. Nesbo!
As a side note, this particular novel was made into a movie starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones. It is subtitled in English and while it doesn't follow the novel strictly, all the correct elements are there.
Headhunters is a wonderfully fun romp through a few short hours in the life of Roger Brown, a vertically-challenged, ultra-successful recruiter (headhunter) for a small company called Alfa. Despite his small stature, Roger has managed to secure a beautiful, smart and tall blonde wife, Diana, who loves him completely. Or does she? In order to continually prove himself worthy of the lovely Diana, Roger gives her everything she wants (or what he thinks she wants), except the one thing she truly wants: a child. Despite his success as a recruiter, Roger's finances are a shambles due to his need to 'buy' Diana's love, and so, he becomes an art thief to supplement his income. But one day, Roger meets his whale - the one recruit that can turn his financial life around: Clas Greve. Not only is Clas PERFECT for a high-profile and high commission-paying position at Pathfinder, a Norwegian tech firm looking for a new leader, Clas is also in possession of a rare, and previously-thought lost, Rubens painting. Between the commission for placing Clas at Pathfinder and the money a fence will pay for the Rubens, Roger will have it made. And then everything goes wrong!
Headhunters has all the things I loved about the Harry Hole novels, minus Harry: wry humor, plenty of twists and turns, infidelity, near misses of the most wonderful sort, excellent research, and a flawed main character - one that you both love and dislike! I also love that he brings together the worlds of art, high tech, police procedure, recruiting services, elite military service, dog breeds, and security systems. A motley crew, and yet, they all serve the story well.
Bravo, Mr. Nesbo!
As a side note, this particular novel was made into a movie starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones. It is subtitled in English and while it doesn't follow the novel strictly, all the correct elements are there.
I really enjoyed the unexpected twists in the story.
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A bit of an odd book this one. A thriller from Jo Nesbo better known for his Harry Hole series of crime novels. This is the first book of his that I have read and it maybe wasn't the best place to start.
The novel is darkly comic at times and reminded me in places of the work of Christopher Brookmyre who I really like. However the characters were all hideous human beings for whom I had no emotional attachment whatsoever. This meant that I did not enjoy the book as much as I might have.
The novel is darkly comic at times and reminded me in places of the work of Christopher Brookmyre who I really like. However the characters were all hideous human beings for whom I had no emotional attachment whatsoever. This meant that I did not enjoy the book as much as I might have.
Lovci hlav jsou důkazem, že Jo Nesbo si poradí i bez svého charismatického sígr-hrdiny Harry Holea. Lovci hlav jsou dobře napsaný, působivý thriller.
"Uhh... what the...." That thought ran through my head about a million times while I was reading this one (and it was a quick read). I've read a few other Nesbo books, which I've enjoyed, but I can't quite say that about this one. First off, he has created a fleet of characters that have few, if any, redeeming qualities. Then, he's put them in these insane situations that are just weird to believe. The weirdest being a very descriptive moment where the main character hides himself in an outhouse..and I mean in an outhouse. There are a couple good plot twists that come out of nowhere, but I feel like there were too many plot holes and way too few enjoyable characters to make this a good one.
picked this up because it was on stephen king's list of "criminally underrated books" in EW. i don't know if it qualifies for that, but i liked the twists - and the fact that this was my first swedish crime book where the protagonist WASN'T a detective. a bit short - i would have appreciated a little more between the initial greve meeting and the robbery of the rubens - and the motives (on greve's part) are a little thin. but, fast paced, something different.
Nesbø wove clues and foreshadowing into this standalone suspense novel in a way that had me guessing some of the twists and turns and yet still leaving me surprised by some of the ending. I enjoyed this book more than the Harry Hole novels I've read by Nesbø.
The story is character driven, and despite there not being any likeable characters, I still wanted to find out what happened to them.
The story is character driven, and despite there not being any likeable characters, I still wanted to find out what happened to them.
slow-paced