2023
Drug addict Sonny Lofthus has been in prison since he was eighteen and finances his habit by atoning for the crimes of others. Thanks to his special status among the inmates, prisoners confess their sins to him. Sonny’s late father, Ab Lofthus, was a policeman. When Simon Kefas, a close friend and former colleague of Ab, shows up, it is to investigate a murder that is linked to Sonny. But Sonny escapes from prison, and he has much to avenge.
The Son is a thriller that proves Nesbø’s immense talent yet again. At Nesbø’s expert hands, Oslo is painted in noir tones once more, as, behind the scenes, local politicians, big business, the police, and courthouses engage in a dance with the power-players of society’s underbelly – those far from the reaches of the law. At the same time, the novel revolves around characteristic Nesbø-themes such as father-son, law-justice, revenge-prejudice, and guilt-atonement. And, at the very core of the story about Sonny is a great love story.
Corruption and organized crime are at the root of the great dramas playing out on these pages, whether set at the Oslo police station, in city hall, in a dingy hotel room at Kvadraturen or among the pushers along Akerselva. This is a Scandinavian The Wire in a heightened, hyper-realistic Sin City-Oslo.
Nesbo delivers a revved-up, entertaining red harvest, another guaranteed hit from a forceful thriller machine.
Aimed at fans of tautatsmospheric thrillers that run from Stieg Larsson to Turow who have yet not discovered Nesbo, a budding superstar in the U.S
Nesbø has given his series character, Harry Hole, the year off. In The Son, he has crafted an elegant stand-alone novel full of vengeance and redemption.
Jo Nesbø is an excellent novelist even if he’s not writing about Harry Hole.
Jo Nesbø
Thron Ullberg
