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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
I listened to this one on audiobook and I really liked the narrators gruff voice. For some reason I thought this was going to be a lot more horrorish. In reality it's more of a crime drama.
Olav is an assassin for hire in Oslo, Norway. He lives a encapsulated life with no friends, family or anyone close to him. That all changes when he is hired to kill a client's wife, but in the process of watching her he decides to handle things differently. This choice upends his world and forces him to realize what truly matters: the ones we love.
I hope future Nesbo reads are better this left me wondering what all the hype was about.
3⭐️’s
Olav is an assassin for hire in Oslo, Norway. He lives a encapsulated life with no friends, family or anyone close to him. That all changes when he is hired to kill a client's wife, but in the process of watching her he decides to handle things differently. This choice upends his world and forces him to realize what truly matters: the ones we love.
I hope future Nesbo reads are better this left me wondering what all the hype was about.
3⭐️’s
This was my second Jo Nesbø read, and I am so enamored with his writing. I loved, and raved about, The Son, and Blood on Snow packs a similar emotional punch. Nesbø writes characters you fall in love with, regardless of their criminal acts.
Olav is a "fixer", or hitman, for a notorious drug distributor. He doesn't like what he does but circumstances have led him to this path, and he knows he's good at his job. When a job goes wrong after Olav strays from his directions, he becomes the target and ends up taking his boss' wife into hiding with him to protect her. Olav reaches out to his boss' main competitor, "The Fisherman", for help and they set out to fix him first.
The storyline is compelling and keeps you flipping the pages, but it's Olav that makes the book so impactful. He's a reader and a romantic, spending his time thinking about the love story in Les Miserables and relating it to his own life. As we learn about his childhood he becomes more sympathetic, regardless of the brutal crimes he has committed.
This book is violent with some pretty shocking moments, but it's impressive how much depth Nesbø delivers in this short story. I've been itching to start the Harry Hole series for ages, and with the latest installment coming out soon, it may be time. I'll also be reading the companion to this book, Midnight Sun, when it arrives in the mail. If you're looking for an unconventional crime read, be sure to pick this up!
Olav is a "fixer", or hitman, for a notorious drug distributor. He doesn't like what he does but circumstances have led him to this path, and he knows he's good at his job. When a job goes wrong after Olav strays from his directions, he becomes the target and ends up taking his boss' wife into hiding with him to protect her. Olav reaches out to his boss' main competitor, "The Fisherman", for help and they set out to fix him first.
The storyline is compelling and keeps you flipping the pages, but it's Olav that makes the book so impactful. He's a reader and a romantic, spending his time thinking about the love story in Les Miserables and relating it to his own life. As we learn about his childhood he becomes more sympathetic, regardless of the brutal crimes he has committed.
This book is violent with some pretty shocking moments, but it's impressive how much depth Nesbø delivers in this short story. I've been itching to start the Harry Hole series for ages, and with the latest installment coming out soon, it may be time. I'll also be reading the companion to this book, Midnight Sun, when it arrives in the mail. If you're looking for an unconventional crime read, be sure to pick this up!
Jo Nesbø's tale of the fixer, Olav, makes the reader fall in love with a character you should hate. Throughout the book you receive glimpses into Olav's past and learn what makes him tick. Immersed in the criminal underground the reader finds out what it's like to be a fixer who is now slated to become the fixed.
En uventet morsom og trist fortelling om en morder som har lett for å forelske seg.
Between 3.5 and 4 stars.
This is definitely not my usual kind of reading. But the cover drew me in and it was short and surprisingly enjoyable.
The basic premise is the narrator, Olav, is a "fixer" aka a hitman hired to kill people for big-time crime bosses in Oslo. He has fallen in love with "the woman of his dreams". The only problem? He has been hired to kill her and she's the wife of his boss. Given the subject of this book, I don't think it is surprising that is can be graphic at times. I certainly wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you like true crime and perhaps want to read from the point of view of someone who kills for a living, give this a try. In fact, I found some of the writing to be quite beautiful, even if it was a little odd.
This is definitely not my usual kind of reading. But the cover drew me in and it was short and surprisingly enjoyable.
The basic premise is the narrator, Olav, is a "fixer" aka a hitman hired to kill people for big-time crime bosses in Oslo. He has fallen in love with "the woman of his dreams". The only problem? He has been hired to kill her and she's the wife of his boss. Given the subject of this book, I don't think it is surprising that is can be graphic at times. I certainly wouldn't recommend this to everyone but if you like true crime and perhaps want to read from the point of view of someone who kills for a living, give this a try. In fact, I found some of the writing to be quite beautiful, even if it was a little odd.
The library categorizes this as a mystery, but I disagree. More of a suspense/thriller-type novel. Great main character who is multi-faceted: brutal and sensitive, well-read and poorly educated, cold-hearted and kind. Very visual writing--tons of great, if gross, imagery. Some dark humor.
Despite the urging of several people, I haven't checked out Nesbo's wildly popular Harry Hole series. I picked this one up partly because it's very short (even though it's been padded out to hit 200 pages you could easily read it in about two hours), and partly because I had conflated it with another Scandinavian book with the same title that I had heard was good (that one is a true crime book about the assassination of Swedish Prime Minster Olof Palme in 1986).
In any event, this is a sparse story about a hit man working for Olso's leading heroin boss in the 1970s. As in almost every single book and film with a hit man as protagonist, the story sits lumpily in a broth of morality and existentialism. We get a backstory filled with predictable elements that "explain" how he became a hit man. And we get the story of the big job that forces him to confront what he's become, also full of predictable elements. There are some moments of comedy and some nice details sprinkled here and there that save the book from being a total loss. But it's also not one brimming with freshness and invention, and the ending is sure to confuse and/or annoy many readers. Totally skippable.
In any event, this is a sparse story about a hit man working for Olso's leading heroin boss in the 1970s. As in almost every single book and film with a hit man as protagonist, the story sits lumpily in a broth of morality and existentialism. We get a backstory filled with predictable elements that "explain" how he became a hit man. And we get the story of the big job that forces him to confront what he's become, also full of predictable elements. There are some moments of comedy and some nice details sprinkled here and there that save the book from being a total loss. But it's also not one brimming with freshness and invention, and the ending is sure to confuse and/or annoy many readers. Totally skippable.
This is a short novel which doesn't feature Harry Hole, the protagonist in most of Nesbo's work. Those aren't necessarily negatives though - sometimes it's good to read a short, less complex novel with unfamiliar characters and an unfamiliar setting.
I liked this - the characters are more classically 'noir' and exist on the wrong side of the law, but they are interesting and well expressed.
Personally, I hope this is the beginning of a new series.
I liked this - the characters are more classically 'noir' and exist on the wrong side of the law, but they are interesting and well expressed.
Personally, I hope this is the beginning of a new series.