The Snowman

From Goodreads:

Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity.
Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf.
Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer.
Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time

My Review: This book blew me away. I first read it on recommendation from Unfinished Person. I have to admit that I hate reading a series out of order but I did not know that it was a seris until I looked it up online. Plus it is what my library had as an ebook. I looked it up and my library has the physical books of the whole series so you know what I am going to read when I get back to Ohio.

Anyways There is this serial killer loose and Harry Hole is trying to catch him. The killer leaves a snowman in front of the house that he plans to abduct and to kill the woman. (I will never look at a snowman the same again). The snowman is symbolic as you will find out when you read the story.Harry Hole and his team go to great lengths to catch the killer which is Norway's first serial killer.  The twist and turns are such that you will never guess who the killer is before Harry does.  There are some books that proclaim themselves thriller and mystery but this one blows all other books out of the water. Nesbo even makes the Milimum Trilogy look tame.

The reader will find themselves connecting with Harry as he hunts down the killer. You will feel his frustrations and triumphs. There will be times when you think you figured out the killer only to find that it was not the killer at all.

I hesitate to say this is a stand a lone novel because there is some back story that if you haven't read all the books in order you will be left out. You can read it alone but u will miss some of the nuance of the story. I recommend reading the series in order.

This is a book (series) that I recommend everyone to read. You will not be disappointed.

The 6th Target

From Goodreads:

When a horrifying attack leaves one of the four members of the Women's Murder Club struggling for her life, the others fight to keep a madman behind bars before anyone else is hurt.
And Lindsay Boxer and her new partner in the San Francisco police department run flat-out to stop a series of kidnappings that has electrified the city: children are being plucked off the streets together with their nannies--but the kidnappers aren't demanding ransom. Amid uncertainty and rising panic, Lindsay juggles the possibility of a new love with an unsolvable investigation, and the knowledge that one member of the club could be on the brink of death.
And just when everything appears momentarily under control, the case takes a terrifying turn, putting an entire city in lethal danger. Lindsay must make a choice she never dreamed she'd face--with no certainty that either outcome has more than a prayer of success.

My Review: I subscribe to several crime book blogs and I have always wanted to try the genre. A friend had this book so I borrowed it. I must say I like it better than I thought I would. This branching out this year is paying off I am discovering so many new books and genres.

This is the 6th book in the Women Murder Club series. This book can stand alone. There don’t seem to be any back story that the reader needs to know.

The main character Lindsay Boxer is a detective and she is attempting to solve several violent crimes. There are times I am rooting for her then there are times when she seems obnoxious and I hope she gets shot. Although I feel for her when she is having a hard time solving the crimes and comes up with a bunch of dead ends.

Then there is the lawyer Yuki. I hated her I thought she was so obnoxious that I was hoping she lose the case where a man shot 6 people because the voices in his head told him to. And she did lose so me and the author must have felt the same way. Throughout the whole book every time it was her turn to tell her story I would go into a rage. I know it is a fictional character but still that how obnoxious she was.

I was impressed at how well the author had done his homework on mental illness and the side effects on medication and how a person acts on it. He mentions Risperdal and I took it and it really did sedate me and other people. I would sleep for 10 to 14 hours when I took it. Although I have qualms about using a mental illness as a cover for violent crime. I feel it gives us all a bad name. I have the illness mentioned in the book and I have never had the urge to start shooting random people. To each his own I guess. I just wish that there was a disclaimer that states that violence of that magnitude is rare. Other than that and Yuki’s part of the story I felt this was a good story with good believable plot lines and good dialogue. If you like crime fiction be sure to check this book out!

The Boy In the Suitcase

 

From Goodreads:

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.
Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

My Review: I first read Scandinavian Crime Fiction with the Millmum Trilogy. Ever since I have been curious about others in the genre. I first heard about this book on a blog (I forget whose) then when I saw it in the library I decided to give it a chance. I was not disappointed.

When reading crime fiction it is important to me that the crime and the resulting story be believable. I am willing to suspend disbelief to some extent but if it is really out there then it pulls me out of the story. This book was written so that one could easily picture this sort of crime happening.

I could relate to the main character Nina Borg. Her actions were on par to what a “real” person would do. Her fears of not knowing what would happen to the boy if she returned him, the way that she went about trying to find out where he was from all flowed together seamlessly. I was rooting for her to solve the mystery of where the boy came from from the beginning. The other characters actions flowed with the story also. There is nothing worse than reading a character that does not act according to the plot. It draws one out of the story and can ruin the entire book. Even the setting was outstanding in this book. I could picture the Denmark that the authors were describing. It was if I was there watching the story unfold.

I really enjoyed this book. I think most people will so get it today!