This is my first case with Harry Hole and definitely won’t be my last.

I was gripped from the opening of The Snowman all the way to the end. This book is unmissable and I really want to see the movie as well.

Harry Hole is a great character. He has shades of light and dark, is unconventional to say the least, moves to the beat of his own drummer and is wonderfully human and flawed. I sort of have a crush on him.

I loved the idea behind the book. I will never look at snow or snowmen in the same way again. My flesh is still crawling.

The Snowman offers brilliant misdirection, by pointing the finger at someone who, on paper at least, clearly seems to be the killer before pulling the rug from under your feet. I love it when writers jump out of closets in strange places for one final twist.

I was invited to read 'The Snowman ' by the publisher, prior to its release in cinemas in October 2017, and have given an honest review in exchange.

As a little girl I used to love the first snowfall of winter, and the fun that accompanied it, like sledging down hills with complete abandon and snowball fights, but best of all was building a snowman. Great effort went into making this little guy look good - a borrowed cap and scarf from dad - a few buttons from mum's sewing box - however, the snowman in Jo Nesbo's thriller doesn't have such pleasant connotations, on the contrary, it elicits feelings of abject terror!

November in Oslo, and the first snowfall of the year covers the gloomy landscape. A young boy discovers his mother missing and ventures outdoors to look for her, but all he finds is his mother's pink scarf wrapped around a snowman in the front yard that appeared mysteriously the day before. And so begins Harry Hole's seventh investigation in this extremely popular series.

Investigations reveal that numerous women have gone missing over the years, all of them on the day of a first snowfall, but their bodies have never been found. As even more go missing, Harry receives a letter from the perpetrator wanting to play games, wanting to pit his wits against Oslo's most famous serial killer hunter. Let the games commence!

Harry is up against an extremely intelligent killer, and the tension never let's up for a minute - the depressingly somber landscape only adds to the fear. The plot is complex, clever, and leads to many suspects, each of them perfectly plausible, but all is not what it seems, and there are many twists and turns before 'The Snowman' is finally revealed. Another winner from Jo Nesbo.

Thank you to Random House UK Vintage Publishing for my ARC.

Amazingly I had never read a Jo Nesbo book previous to this, and having read The Snowman I am now set on reading every other book in the Harry Hole series. From the very first page I was gripped and read the whole book in a few sittings, I literally couldn't put it down. All the characters are brilliantly thought out and presented, and you feel genuine emotions for them throughout the story. Harry Hole is now up there with my favourite literary protagonists, alongside Hurwitz's Evan Smoak and Oswald's Tony McLean, with his disregard for rules and relentless determination to catch the criminal at any cost making it impossible not to like him. His personal struggles throughout the narrative only add to his character and make you even fonder of him. The plot is unbelievably complex, hitting you with one twist after another and leaving you guessing as to who the killer is until the very end, and it most certainly is a shock. Moreover, the ending leaves you with an intense sense of foreboding, and has left me desperate to read the next instalment. An absolute 10/10 that I would recommend to any crime/thriller readers.

I enjoyed this book by Jo Nesbo, despite my continued struggle to pronounce street/place names in my head but I suspect some of our English place names leave readers confused at times.

This is an excellent mystery, well-written and well-constructed that kept me engaged throughout. I loved the character of Harry Hole who fits the bill as the brilliant but perhaps flawed police investigator who marches to his own drum, despite the efforts of his superiors to control him. He is fatalistic and moral.

However, this is a sombre book with Oslo taking centre stage and the actors therein seem joyless in their lives which leaves a somewhat bleak impression.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

This Block Buster of a book has now been made into a well anticipated Block Buster movie being released in to the cinemas on the 13th October. I am, to say the least, extremely excited but also relieved that it is Autumn and not a winter night in December. Whoa what a shudder that just created! I knew before I see the film I had to read the book first as it intensifies the visual effects so much more.
The first fall of snow caused more than a little curiosity in Jonas because he knew he hadn't built a snowman in their yard and if he had it would be turned to look out onto the road not at his house. It unsettled the child but in the night when he looked his mother was gone and the pink scarf he had bought her was now round the neck of the snowman.
Inspector Harry Hole doesn't really play well with others, in fact there were times when he seemed to achieve better and with greater clarity the more he drank. So when a second Snowman appears followed by the disappearance of another woman off his patch in Oslo followed by a letter addressed for him from the creep claiming responsibility it is game on.  A game of cat and mouse begins but which is which is another matter.
Harry is put in charge of the investigation and Norway's first serial killer forms a relationship with this first Police Inspector to hunt a serial killer down. The gruesome reality soon begins to surface and with more digging the regularity of mothers going missing in the surrounding area over the past years soon forms a pattern with the coming and going of the snow.
This does become quite a complex story so full on concentration is really needed. Then just to keep you on your toes you have to cull all the red herrings. What you are left with is one hell of a story that made me look out of my bedroom window at the end of August, just to be on the safe side before I got in bed. Harry partners up with Katrine Bratt newly arrived from out of town. She has quite a mystery about her that I thought I wouldn't crack. Talk about a plot, well obviously I won't but read for yourself it really is a beauty. This novel can be read as part of the series of Harry Hole books or as a stand alone. Just enjoy and pray for a warm winter.
I was more than happy to see the translation from Norwegian to English had been undertaken by Don Bartlett as I knew that the voice I would hear would be Jo Nesbo.
I wish to thank the publisher for an invite to read and review this book which I have done honestly.

This is a re-read for me, it is the 7th in the Harry Hole series set in Oslo, Norway. It is now a major film with Michael Fassbender as Harry, I admit to being intrigued to see how this novel translates into this movie! We have the usual gloomy and downbeat portrayal of Norway, its weather and its people. A young boy finds his mother missing and goes outside. There he finds a snowman has appeared, adorned with a scarf belonging to his mother. Oslo police have Harry investigate with his new partner, Katrine Bratt. As Harry digs into the case, it emerges there are eleven missing women through the years and not a body to be found. Harry concludes that there is a serial killer on the loose, an analysis that his superiors dismiss. That is until Harry gets a letter from the killer looking to lock horns with him. And so ensues a battle of wits in a macabre story with numerous twists. My re-read confirms to me that this is one of the better books in the series, although The Redbreast is my favourite. Looking forward to seeing the film. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

'The Snowman' was the book that introduced me to the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo and re-reading it again now I can see why I fell completely in love with them (and Harry) right from the start.

A dark and disturbing thriller that takes you on an exilharating rollercoaster of a ride that keeps you guessing right up until you reach the shocking climax. This is the seventh in the Harry Hole series and even though it is possible to read it as a standalone, I would highly recommend reading the previous books first.

This edition of 'The Snowman' is being released to tie-in with the eagerly anticipated major motion picture starring the wonderful Michael Fassbender, which is due to hit our cinema screens soon.

Harry Hole is a flawed but fascinating character that I can't wait to see brought to life on the big screen,, but if you really want to get to know him then this series of outstanding thrillers are a must read.

A thrilling 5 star read not to be missed.