Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Harry Hole is the down and out, wretched detective in Jo Nesbo's series of mysteries. In this one, mothers are being killed and a snowman is left on the scene as a clue. Good compelling story, but a little difficult to follow. It may have been a little easier to understand had I read the others. I will go back to the first one and give it a try.
Brief commentary, rather than a full review.
Read for our f2f bookclub, every book by Jo Nesbø reminds you to read the rest of the series.
It's partially the way that the balance between atmosphere, plot and character is maintained so elegantly. It's partially the way that Harry Hole might be an archetypal loner, but he's not with out a sense of humour, and profound confusion. It's also to do with the manner in which the plots are so cleverly constructed, even if we are dealing with yet another serial killer.
Needless to say everything adds up to a small amount of kicking myself over how far behind I am with this series.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-snowman-jo-nesb%C3%B8
Read for our f2f bookclub, every book by Jo Nesbø reminds you to read the rest of the series.
It's partially the way that the balance between atmosphere, plot and character is maintained so elegantly. It's partially the way that Harry Hole might be an archetypal loner, but he's not with out a sense of humour, and profound confusion. It's also to do with the manner in which the plots are so cleverly constructed, even if we are dealing with yet another serial killer.
Needless to say everything adds up to a small amount of kicking myself over how far behind I am with this series.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-snowman-jo-nesb%C3%B8
This was my introduction to Jo Nesbo and I was not disappointed. Phenomenal storyline with twists, turns and bone-chilling creepiness. I am a true fan of a good mystery and this novel delivered on all counts. Spanning three decades, the story observes Inspector Harry Holes in his efforts to locate a serial killer, whose calling card is a snowman. I honestly will never look at a snowman in the same way again! Highly recommended!!
o desenvolvimento do livro não é tudo isso mas o final foi bem bacana
Great suspense and characters, as usual. Just too many false leads....it's as if Nesbø left too many options for himself before deciding on a final outcome! Rakel all of a sudden reveals that her ex-husband is not Oleg's father? TOO CONVENIENT. And what was the point of the mold abatement? Perhaps I'll find out in the next book. I wanted this book to be over long before it was.
'The Snowman', creeped me out! Lovely! It was sooooooo good! I was up all Saturday night because I couldn't stand not knowing how the book would end. There were three possible suspects, and I truly thought it could be any one of them up to the last chapters. I was completely unable to suss out the mysteries. I held my breath so often I damn near burst a blood vessel. Maybe I did.
There are horrors in life which I hope never cross my path and there are horrors that are deliciously fun - afterwords. Then, there are reads which perform both of the intricate dances of horror together, like this book.
This is the 7th book in the Norwegian detective Harry Hole mystery series. If your eyes went wide at reading 'Norwegian' and you thought, "uh oh - hardboiled and graphic", gentle reader, well, ok then, yes. But it is not graphic in a sadistically lingering manner the way some 100% Horror genre novels do. However, 'The Snowman' definitely follows the established protocols for the insane serial killer genre. If you are smiling right now, gentle reader, then I highly recommend this book, and this literary mystery series, to you. (Personally, snowmen are now part of my irrational fears collection of awful things, right behind clowns.)
I think this particular novel in the series can be read as a standalone, but many of the reasons for Harry Hole's complicated life (his bosses want to fire him for alcoholism and insubordination, his work partners tend to be murdered, his girlfriends love/hate him, he has sort of adopted an ex-girlfriend's son emotionally, he is considered the police team's resident serial-killer expert) has more depth and intensity if the series is read in order, beginning with 'The Bat' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19710826-the-bat, a book, by the way, whose plot is referred to in 'The Snowman' again and again.
I have a small bit of advice: 'The Bat' was written before the author firmed up his 'voice' for Harry Hole, so it might mislead a reader new to the series into thinking the detective has occasional summers of redemption instead of the continual dark cold misery Hole lives with. Hole has no illusions, whatsoever, about how evil people can be because of his cases - book after book....
The plot whips back and forth between the past and present at first, which I think was done a touch clumsily, so I thought I couldn't give this novel the five stars it might deserve. The initial clumsiness of handling the time changes annoyed me so much. However, it ends up being such a high-octane intricate plot, all is forgiven.
I apologize if you were expecting a story synopsis - I think this plot is WAY too much fun in discovering what happens as a cold read!
There are horrors in life which I hope never cross my path and there are horrors that are deliciously fun - afterwords. Then, there are reads which perform both of the intricate dances of horror together, like this book.
This is the 7th book in the Norwegian detective Harry Hole mystery series. If your eyes went wide at reading 'Norwegian' and you thought, "uh oh - hardboiled and graphic", gentle reader, well, ok then, yes. But it is not graphic in a sadistically lingering manner the way some 100% Horror genre novels do. However, 'The Snowman' definitely follows the established protocols for the insane serial killer genre. If you are smiling right now, gentle reader, then I highly recommend this book, and this literary mystery series, to you. (Personally, snowmen are now part of my irrational fears collection of awful things, right behind clowns.)
I think this particular novel in the series can be read as a standalone, but many of the reasons for Harry Hole's complicated life (his bosses want to fire him for alcoholism and insubordination, his work partners tend to be murdered, his girlfriends love/hate him, he has sort of adopted an ex-girlfriend's son emotionally, he is considered the police team's resident serial-killer expert) has more depth and intensity if the series is read in order, beginning with 'The Bat' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19710826-the-bat, a book, by the way, whose plot is referred to in 'The Snowman' again and again.
I have a small bit of advice: 'The Bat' was written before the author firmed up his 'voice' for Harry Hole, so it might mislead a reader new to the series into thinking the detective has occasional summers of redemption instead of the continual dark cold misery Hole lives with. Hole has no illusions, whatsoever, about how evil people can be because of his cases - book after book....
The plot whips back and forth between the past and present at first, which I think was done a touch clumsily, so I thought I couldn't give this novel the five stars it might deserve. The initial clumsiness of handling the time changes annoyed me so much. However, it ends up being such a high-octane intricate plot, all is forgiven.
I apologize if you were expecting a story synopsis - I think this plot is WAY too much fun in discovering what happens as a cold read!
I'll be honest, this probably is a good book but I'm just not in the space to really sit down and enjoy it. I'll pick this up some other time and try it again. 500 pages is way to long...for any book.
I have read this book out of sequence so I could tell where the red herrings were and was able to work out the killer quite early. Notwithstanding this, the "how" and the "why" were enough to keep me reading.