Crime & Beyond Book Club Reads Jo Nesbo

Kerry Hammond is here today with her report from the Denver-based Crime & Beyond book club. Their latest read is Jo Nesbo’s Blood on Snow.

Jo Nesbo is a book club favorite and we’ve read several books in the Harry Hole series. This month, we read the author’s most recent standalone book, Blood on Snow. This book takes place in Oslo, Norway and follows Olav, a “fixer” for one of the city’s top crime bosses. There’s more to Olav than meets the eye, though. He’s good at his job, which means his skills are in demand, but he seems to have a soft side. This sentimental part gets him into trouble with his boss when he is hired to kill the boss’s wife and instead falls in love with her.

Olav’s misstep puts him in danger, and in the middle of a power struggle between rival criminals. As he tries to figure out how to get out of the situation he’s gotten himself into, we learn more about what makes him tick and how he became a hired killer.

Our book club loves Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, but there are a few members who find the scenes in those books to be too graphic. In an interview with the author, he admits that his books tend to show the darker side of Oslo. Our club agreed that Blood on Snow was less graphic, yet well-written, and a good example of the reason we keep reading the author’s work.

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