A thrilling crime novel from an author being heralded as the new Stieg Larsson.
With Larsson having opened the door for many European writers Nesbo is a wonderful discovery. The Snowman is actually the fifth in a series featuring detective Harry Hole and is a cleverly plotted, twisting tale of a serial killer murdering young mothers on the first day of snowfall. Dark, disturbing and totally gripping.
The night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother's pink scarf. Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a link between the disappearance and a menacing letter he received some months earlier. As Harry and his team delve into unsolved case files, they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. When a second woman disappears Harry's suspicions are confirmed: he is a pawn in a deadly game. For the first time in his career, Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his turf, a killer who will drive him to the brink of insanity. A brilliant thriller with a pace that never lets up, The Snowman confirms Jo Nesbo's position as an international star of crime fiction.
Jo Nesbø, musician, economist and author of the best-selling series featuring Detective Harry Hole, has won many prizes for his novels, including the Glass Key, the Riverton Prize and the Norwegian Bookclub prize for best ever Norwegian crime novel. His first novel to be published in English was The Devil's Star and the second, The Redbreast, was shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger. He lives in Oslo.