I’m looking forward to more of his books being translated into English. Okkupert ( Occupied ), based on a concept by Jo Nesb, is a television series produced by TV 2 and Yellow Bird, the Swedish production house responsible for the Wallander TV series, and the films Headhunters and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Leopard kept me guessing (and guessing completely wrong) right up until the very end. While his books are lengthy they’re almost always worth the time investment. But if you’re looking for an engrossing crime novel in the vein of Steig Larsson it’s worth giving Nesbo a try. If you’re looking for a quick read you won’t find it here. The Leopard is on the longish side, as Nesbo’s books tend to be. He’s somehow likeable in spite of all this, probably because his adversaries are either: a) ten times worse than he is b) murdering scumbags or c) both. He really has no desire to do the right thing, but he feels compelled. He is also inexplicably irresistible to his female colleagues and a bit of a dick. He’s a detective but he’s also a drunk, a drug user, and an all-around rogue.

Harry himself is a quintessential anti-hero. There is definitely some violence and what there is is completely horrifying, but there isn’t a lot of superfluous violence just for the sake of it like you find in a lot of American novels. And it’s interesting to note that Nesbo’s books aren’t overly violent for the most part.

The first chapter starts off with a bang – it actually reminded me of something you’d see in one of the Saw movies, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your taste. It slowly peels away layer after layer as the story moves along. After reading the Dragon Tattoo series I developed kind of a thing for Scandinavian crime novels.Īnd like most Scandinavian crime novels I’ve read, this one is a bit of a slow burn. Anyway, I had previously read The Snowman and enjoyed it, so I was anxious to give The Leopard a try. Is there a worse protagonist name ever than Harry Hole? I realize that the book was written in Norwegian and “Harry Hole” may not have the same giggle-value in Norwegian, but wow. The Leopard was not my first foray into Jo Nesbo’s world of Harry Hole, and damn, does that sound horrible. Intrepid (and drunk) detective Harry Hole is back, this time hunting a sadistic killer who is using a horrifying torture device to drown women in their own blood.

The leopard jo nesbo