Jo Nesbo's Phantom was overwhelming, confusing, and pretty raw. But when I closed the book at 1:00 in the morning after reading the final page, I was completely satisfied. I love reading about Nesbo's Harry Hole and the impossible situations he finds himself in (and eventually gets out of).
My literary love affair with Harry (the second Harry love of my life, after Mr. Potter) began with Nesbo's The Snowman. I heard about it on my favorite book podcast, Books on the Nightstand. It sounded so dark, twisted, and forbidden compared to my usual reading diet of YA and MG books. Summer was approaching and I was excited to branch out and read adult books for once. I read The Snowman on my honeymoon in, ironically, Cancun, Mexico. It was the gateway drug into Nesbo's other Harry Hole bestsellers (which couldn't be translated into English from the Norwegian fast enough for me!) The Leopard, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, and a non-Harry Hole book, Headhunters. Jo Nesbo is a gifted twisted ending writer. I love the gritty life Harry leads and appreciate the fact that he is the ultimate anti-hero that you hate to love (Harry's exes feel the same way.) Since The Snowman was his first US hit, with his earlier Hole novels translated out of order, my perfectionism aches to reread them in order to follow the overall story line, but since my TBR piles are teetering precariously around me as I type this, we all know that will never happen. I'll have to be satisfied with a little imperfectionism, which I've gotten used to in my relationship with Harry.
Although the novels can be read out of order, I definitely recommend starting with The Snowman to see Nesbo at his finest.
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| Jo Nesbo is also a musician, songwriter, and economist and lives in Oslo (from book jacket). |
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