For a Jo Nesbo novel, Blood on Snow is incredibly short. Its 172 pages is less than half that of an average Jo Nesbo thriller but that doesn’t make it any less gripping.
I am a huge fan of Scandi Noir and I thoroughly enjoy Nesbo’s page-turners.
As a complete aside, I found a children’s book of his a week or so ago. I haven’t read it yet but it is entitled Doctor Proctor’s Time Travel Bath Bomb which sounds fun and I am looking forward to discovering how Nesbo writes for a younger audience.
Back to Blood on Snow. Your narrator for this journey is a hitman called Olav and we meet him in the process of killing someone for his sometimes boss (Olav is freelance) Daniel Hoffmann.
Olav is a killer with a conscience and one complicated individual. He cannot do robberies because he feels he is giving the victim psychological problems, he can’t do prostitution because he doesn’t like violence towards women and he can’t do drugs because he struggles with maths. So killing people it is then.
His hitman career is more or less on track when Hoffmann books him for another job. He watches the hit to get to know her movements and the people in her life.
Then unexpectedly he finds himself falling in love with her. The trouble is, not only is he supposed to be killing her but she’s also Hoffmann’s wife. It’s a bit of an issue.
Have you watched Killing Eve? Well I like Olav in the same way as I liked Villanelle. Yes, ok they are both killers but they have something about them that makes you warm to them.
Olav decides the only way this is going to work is for him to rescue Corina, kill Hoffmann and escape to Paris. But of course it is never going to be that easy.
This is a great novel from a great writer. Jo Nesbo creates brilliant characters, an amazing sense of location and plots that twist and turn in every direction.
If you are a fan of thrillers, of Scandi Noir or of Nesbo, you will love this.
Raynor Reads Stuff 