Headhunters,
US Edition

Finally Jo Nesbo’s freestanding novel Headhunters, is here. This is not a Harry Hole novel: instead of the tall, gutsy detective this novel features Roger Brown, a headhunter. An excellent headhunter even, a man who is extremely good at locating and selecting the right candidates for top corporate positions. He is an expensive guy to hire, but definitely worth every penny: He is a man who can see right through job candidates, asking just the right questions, testing their wits and skills and making them tense or relaxed at will. When he is ready, he slices them open with a winning smile. He intuits what the employer needs, even if the employer doesn’t know it, and delivers candidates with the perfect mix of qualities.

Roger Brown, the main protagonist in Headhunters, is an intriguing guy. He is small: only 1 meter 68 centimeters – five and a half feet. Despite what some might view as an obstacle, he is extremely successful, very well-respected, and quite attractive to beautiful women. He has that certain “je ne sais quoi” – that extra-special something; the glitter in the eye, the wit, the sharp edge, the charisma. He is hands-down the best headhunter in Norway, and he knows it. His talent has led to stunning successes for some very fortunate corporations and has saved others from ruinous disasters.

Headhunters,
UK Edition

Roger Brown is married to the stunningly beautiful and desirable Diana – definitely a sight for sore eyes but a very expensive woman to maintain. So, even though Roger makes a small fortune at his profession, he finds himself in deep financial trouble. He and his delightful and charming wife always manage to spend far more than even Roger is able to bring home.

So Roger needs to make some serious money on the side. Which he does. He has a second career where he is every bit as competent as he is in his “day” job. Roger Brown is an extremely adept art thief. In a sense, he has leveraged his job as a headhunter into this second, highly profitible career – Roger-the-Headhunter learns many things that are useful for Roger-the-Thief. And he doesn’t mind stealing from his clients, just as long as the chances of his being found out are minimal.

However, after breaking into the house of the ideal candidate for a very high-level position, he suddenly realizes he may have gone one step too far. Brown felt certain that the theft of the candidate’s Rubens would be the solution to his financial woes. The final solution, in fact. But in the house, he discovers something which leads him to believe that the relationship between him and his beloved Diana may not be exactly what it seems. Then, the next morning he finds his “partner in crime” dead in the front seat of his own car. Something is very wrong, indeed: The headhunter/art thief has now become the prey of a depraved but very smart and experienced man-hunter. If Roger is to come out of this in one piece, he will have to employ all of his considerable brainpower, wits and skills, and will need a very hefty dose of luck as well.

Headhunters is a wonderful crime fiction novel. Roger Brown may well be one of the best headhunters out there – who knows? It is quite certain, however, that Jo Nesbo is one of the very best crime fiction writers of our time, with a dynamic, unique writing style, excellent dialogues, intriguing characters, good descriptions, and who is wonderfully skilled at building suspense. Headhunters is an entertaining, action-filled and very well-crafted crime fiction novel. Jo Nesbo’s plot has more twists and turns than the road from Oslo to Bergen! Headhunters is an absolute pearl of a thriller – great fun, keeps you on the edge of your chair, and leaves you with a serious craving for more!

Links to books by Jo Nesbo at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

“Tarantino meets the Coen brothers in Nesbø’s crime novel.”
Politiken (Denmark)

“Headhunters has everything that makes a good crime novel: Strange murders, inventive disappearing acts and above all brilliant fraud for all you’re worth.”
Bogrummet (Denmark)

“…a highly entertaining, first-rate crime novel, where Nesbo uses his entire register of narrative techniques and tricks to tell a story that is wilder and more zany than anything he has ever written before.”
Dagbladet (Norway)

See also: The trailer to the Headhunters movie!

The Snowman, the seventh book in Jo Nesbo’s series about inspector Harry Hole, which was recently published in the US, is in the tenth place on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction. There is also a short review of the book in The Sunday Book Review.

Darrell Squires in The Western Star writes;

One thing that distinguishes this novel, and Nesbo’s writing generally, is that he is a sharp and evocative stylist; Oslo in winter is cold enough, but Nesbo’s writing techniques have the effect of darkening everything — even the way his characters interact — and a strong sense of doom pervades.

That’s an excellent description of Nesbo’s writing style. It is a wonderful novel, excellently written and very suspenseful, and it deserves to be a bestseller. Also, it is great for Scandinavian crime fiction that yet another Scandinavian author enters the US bestseller lists.

Trailer for The Snowman

Children in Norway make snowmen for fun every winter. They are usually friendly, white and look peaceful. But Jo Nesbo’s Snowman is a sign of something evil. When you have read the book, you will perhaps find that the way you think about snowmen will have changed! It is a wonderful crime fiction by a master story teller.

See our review of The Snowman by Jo Nesbo.

Links to books by Jo Nesbo at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN. See also Barnes & Noble: Nesbo

Some interesting news for fans of Jo Nesbo:

The next novel in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo will be published in Norwegian on June 9th. The Norwegian title is “Gjenferd“. “Gjenferd” means Ghost. Nothing is known about the content of the book at this time. Gjenferd is the ninth book in the series. I can’t wait to read it!

Also, The Snowman, the seventh book in the series (in the original, Norwegian publishing order), will be published in the US in May this year.

PS: According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Jo Nesbo’s Gjenferd is already a bestseller in Norway (due to heavy pre-ordering), even though nobody seems to know what the book is about!

Norwegian newspapers Dagbladet and VG, as well as the official Jo Nesbo site, reports that the latest Harry Hole book from Jo Nesbo went straight to the top of the hardcover bestseller list in England after being published there.

Jo Nesbo is for the moment on a climbing trip to Asia, but says that he is very happy about this – he is very competitive and loves good results, he says Jo Nesbo is the second Scandinavian crime fiction writer to achieve this – the first was a guy named Stieg Larsson.

I have reviewed The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, and consider it an excellent and very entertaining book. Deservedly, the Harry Hole series seems to be getting more and more fans, both in England, the US and elsewhere. Great for Jo Nesbø!

Harry Hole has a knack for solving difficult cases. He sees invisible patterns, has a strong intuition that guides him, and lots of guts, will, and determination. He has solved a series of difficult cases, the last one involving the so-called Snowman. But it has cost him dearly; in fact, almost everything: The relationship with Rakel and Oleg is over, he has few friends left, and he is probably the most disliked detective in the police department.

Harry Hole was never an easy man to work with. His attitudes – anti-authority, anti-sobriety, anti-rules-of-the-game – make him a danger to himself and those around him. He disregards even direct orders if he sees fit, he doesn’t make compromises, he can be and often is quite intimidating, and he has an unfortunate tendency to be smarter than his bosses. Also, he never sucks up to anyone, and he is far less polite to those above him in rank than to those below him. Harry Hole is the kind of man bosses mostly look for opportunities to get rid of.

Now Harry has turned his back on it all – Oslo, the police department, ignorant bosses and politics – and has gone to Hong Kong. Deep down, Harry is a substance abuser, so what better place to go? He likes to get drunk or anesthetized by some or other drug, and now he has buried himself deep in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens.

This is where we meet him in Jo Nesbo’s (Nesbø) new crime fiction novel The Leopard (original title “Panserhjerte”). (Read more about Jo Nesbo.)

However, in the cold winter in Oslo, a murderer is loose on the streets. He has killed two young women in a very brutal manner – both victims were found with twenty-four inexplicable puncture wounds, and both drowned in their own blood. The crime scenes are clean, the police have no clues, there seems to be no connection between the victims, and on top of that, the media are screaming and raising hell. So the bosses in the Oslo police decide to lure home to Norway the detective who doesn’t want to be found, the only Norwegian detective who knows how to hunt mass murderers.

They send a female police officer to Hong Kong to find Harry Hole and bring him home – using whatever means necessary. Harry agrees to return, not knowing the trouble and ploys that await him in the new mystery that faces him in The Leopard.

There is the case to deal with – an extremely difficult case, but in addition, Harry Hole soon realizes that he is also being used as a pawn in a huge conflict over power and jurisdiction in the Norwegian police system. Moreover, like the pawns in the game of chess, he may be sacrificed at any time. Yet, even though Harry Hole may be a pawn in a bigger game, it is not a game he cares about, and repeatedly he shows the powers that be that unlike chess pieces, Harry Hole has a mind of his own and makes his own moves according to his very own rules.

As always, Harry focuses on the case. He has never been too concerned about self-preservation, does not concern himself with his career and similar things seemingly so important to so many. And soon he makes his first important discovery: The victims actually did have something in common – they had both spent the night in an isolated mountain hostel. And now someone is picking off the guests who spent that particular night there one by one. But who were the people there that night? What happened there? Will Harry manage to stop the murderer before the truth of what transpired will forever be buried in blood?

The Leopard, the sixth Harry Hole thriller (in English – but actually the eight in the Harry Hole series) by the internationally acclaimed Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo is outstanding. The plot twists and curls, and Harry Hole, an extraordinarily interesting man, becomes more and more fascinating. It is a joy to follow him as he out-foxes bosses and colleagues, alienates people left and right in the police force, and doles out justice Hole-style. The Leopard is a top notch, painfully suspenseful crime fiction, and quite possibly Jo Nesbo’s best. It’s a thick brick of a book, but far too short. I loved it. I am certain The Leopard is one of the best crime fiction books of 2011!

PS: Jo Nesbo’s English publisher unfortunately is trying to sell The Leopard and Jo Nesbo as the “next Stieg Larsson”. To my mind Nesbo may well be as good as Larsson, but his style, plots and characters are very different. To me Jo Nesbo currently is Jo Nesbo and he will continue to be Jo Nesbo. He has created a name for himself in his own right, and will continue to grow that name. No other name should be necessary.

Links to books by Jo Nesbo at amazon US, amazon UK, amazon CAN, and Barnes & Noble: Nesbo

(Original title Marekors.) Jo Nesbo (Norwegian name Nesbø), author of the best-selling series featuring Detective Harry Hole, has won many prizes for his novels, including the Glass Key Award, the Riverton Prize and the Norwegian Bookclub’s prize for best ever Norwegian crime novel. His first novel published in English was The Devil’s Star (it was first published in the UK in 2005), which has sold more than 100,000 copies in Norway alone. To get a perspective on this – that means 1 of every 45 Norwegians have bought it – if it sold the same in the US, that would be 6.8 million books.

The main character in Nesbo’s books, first introduced to UK readers in The Devil’s Star, is detective Harry Hole: an angry, hard-drinking, near alcoholic, and off-the-rails detective who wants to play the game by his own rules.

As The Devil’s Star starts, it’s a sweltering summer in Oslo when a young woman is found murdered in her flat. One finger has been cut off, and beneath her eyelid is a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five pointed star.

Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with Tom Waaler – a colleague Harry suspects of running an arms smuggling gang and of having murdered his partner – and initially Harry Hole refuses to become involved. But he is already on notice to quit the force and is left with no choice but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and go to work.

PS: The Leopard is now available for preorder at Amazon UK.

Five days later, a man reports his wife missing. When her severed finger is found wearing a ring mounted with the same star-shaped red diamond, it seems Oslo has a serial killer on its hands. The case in The Devil’s Star revolves around a riddle of fives: five points to the star, five fingers on the hand, and every fifth day a new victim to be counted. In his pursuit of the truth behind both mysteries, Harry Hole unwittingly finds himself on the run from the police and forced to make difficult decisions about his future as a detective.

The Devil’s Star is an extremely exciting and entertaining book, a great crime novel by a brilliant author that has recently been nominated for the Edgar prize (for Nemesis)! The plot is superb, the action is intriguing, inspector Harry Hole has plenty to deal with, and the story is told in a fascinating and appealing manner as well. I am sure he will be well received in England and the US, as he has been in Scandinavia.

Links to books by Jo Nesbo at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN. See also Barnes & Noble: Nesbo

According to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Jo Nesbo has been nominated for the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Award for the “Best Novel” (see also mysterywriters.org). It is Nesbo’s Nemesis, translated by Don Bartlett, that has been nominated. The other nominees for 2010 are:

• Tim Gautreaux: «The Missing».
• John Hart: «The Last Child».
• The Odds by Kathleen George
• Charlie Huston: «Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death».
• Malla Nunn: «A Beautiful Place to Die».

We wish Jo Nesbo and Don Bartlett good luck, and our congratulations. It has been a long time since a Scandinavian writer has won this award. The last time was Sjowall and Wahloo in 1971 with their novel The Laughing Policeman!

Are you interested in who that strange detective Harry Hole in Jo Nesbo‘s excellent crime fiction series is? Do you, like me, sometimes ponder a little on the odd personalities of the heroes of the various crime fiction series?  There is no need to speculate any more! On the official Jo Nesbo site, they have now posted Harry Hole’s CV.

At ScandinavianBooks, we have just posted our review of the latest book in the Harry Hole crime fiction series, The Snowman (forthcoming, will be released in March in the UK.) Also, here is a small video where Jo Nesbo discusses who Harry Hole is. And he ought to know!

And, while we’re at it, why not a video by Jo Nesbo’s band “di Derre” (“those guys”) about girls as well? Quite nice, actually!

A number of Scandinavian crime autors have been mentioned in the news lately. Stieg Larsson’s books are still generating hype. A recent post discusses The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo, and reports that it has now sold 7.5 million copies. Another reviewer, Joyce Pines, clearly fell in love with Stieg Larsson and Lisbeth Salander. She writes:

I did not want “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” to end. I was just getting to know the talented young woman of the title and I was intrigued by her and wanted so spend more time following her around Sweden, but author Stieg Larsson pulled the plug.

Another writer, at Book Hound, is  also fascinated with Lisbeth Salander, and finds comfort in the fact that The Girl Who Played With Fire is arriving, and writes that it is much better than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo because:

The focus in the second book of the trilogy shifts squarely to Lisbeth Salander, whose looks pass for elfin and whose computer hacker skills are off the charts, and we learn far more about her origins, the staggering damage inflicted upon her early on, and why her past plays a central role in the present as she finds herself a suspect in a murder inquiry.

Indeed, even in India there are people fascinated by the Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson! If you’re interested in more info about Stieg Larsson, there’s also a pretty good Q&A about him in Library Journal, as well as book reviews of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Angela Youngman and Laureen Walter! As well, ScandinavianBooks has reviews of the books!

Henning Mankell is another Swedish author that has been receiving considerable attention internationally lately. The movies recently shown on TV in the US and elsewhere have no doubt contributed to a renewed interest in this wonderful author. Thus, The Genteel Arsenal, for instance, recently brought a review of Menkell’s Sidetracked. The author of the review says he is ” intrigued by Swedish crime fiction at the moment”. He is not alone!

Also, a piece of good news for fans of Jo Nesbø (who is Norwegian rather than Swedish): I recently read that Jo Nesbo‘s new novel about Harry Hole, (will probably be) titled “Leoparden” (The Leopard)(the title ended up as Panserhjerte – Panzer Heart) is to be released in Norwegian, most likely late in September this year. This is his eight book about the somewhat miserable Harry, who introduces himself as “My name is Harry. Harry Hole” instead of “My name is Bond. James Bond.” For a long time I have been worried that he might have given up on Harry Hole and instead would be writing more Head Hunters novels.

In Panzer Heart (Panserhjerte), two women are found dead in Oslo, both have drowned in their own blood and have been stabbed in the mouth. The police have no technical traces to work on. They decide to get hold of Harry Hole, who has left the country and lives in Hong Kong, where he drinks and drugs himself while hiding from his creditors. The Oslo police offers to help him with his debts, and also informs him that his father is very ill and probably dying. Hole accepts, and takes on a case that turns out to be the most difficult he has had so far. As well, he is faced with new, tough opponents inside the police force, and even though he has been weakened by his own severe abuse of his body, he must fight several enemies simultaneously.

Also, Anne Holt is publishing a new book in Norwegian this fall, and Karin Fossum’s tenth book about Inspector Konrad Sejer, (Norwegian title Varsleren), is to be published in Norwegian in August.

In the sad news department, a Swedish Internet site gives a summary of an interview with Håkan Nesser (who has recently published his new book Maskarna på Carmine Street) where he states that he  only will write four books more, and then stop writing! That may not be all that important to American fans, since the US publishers are so slow in translating and publishing his books that they are approximately 20 books behind already (they probably will not finish publishing even the Van Veeteren series until 2020-25), but for Scandinavian and European fans it would be sad if Hakan Nesser stopped writing! Time will show, I guess?

More Scandinavian literary news at ScandinavianBooks.

According to Worldscreen.com, Zodiak Entertainment-owned Yellow Bird has optioned the film rights to Headhunters (Hodejegerne) from bestselling Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø. The book has been sold to ten countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, and now Yellowbird is developing a feature-film adaptation of it. While Jo Nesbo is primarily known for his Inspector Harry Hole series, Headhunters is not from this series, but rather the first book (probably) of what may become a second crime fiction series by Nesbo.

Jo Nesbø is an internationally well-known author thanks to his seven highly acclaimed crime novels featuring Detective Harry Hole. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and four of them into English (see reviews of Jo Nesbo’s books at Scendinavianbooks.com).

Headhunters is a thriller which focuses on Roger Brown, a successful headhunter who finances his extravagant life by way of dangerous art thefts. Upon meeting the Dutchman Clas Greve, he starts planning his biggest heist ever, but soon runs into trouble.The book has been a great success in Scandinavia.

PS: The Leopard is now available for preorder at Amazon UK.

Marianne Gray, producer at Yellow Bird, noted: “Headhunters is both entertaining and riveting and we believe that the strength of this story together with Jo’s sales success worldwide will make for another highly successful feature film with huge international potential.”

According to Worldscreen, the work on the movie script has already started. If all proceeds accoring to schedule, the production of the movie is expected to start next year.

This is very good for Jo Nesbo and for Scandinavian crime fiction fans. I’ll be looking forwards to seeing the movie!