If you're a Harry Hole fan, as I am, this book might come as a bit of a shock. Don't get me wrong. It's a wonderful book, with engaging characters, an absorbing narrative, and some very fine writing, but I can't find in it the slightest sign of the noir world Harry Hole has always inhabited. This is an entirely different kind of world. There are plenty of nefarious doings afoot, of course, but the world in which they occur is vastly sunnier and more recognizable than Harry's.

Is it possible there are two Jo Nesbo's writing popular fiction these days, and this is the other one? If you told me that's true, I'd have no reason to disbelieve you.

I know I've read this before but it seems to be filled with more of what people need really to read. It's definitely not a noir read but it's filled with a lot of red herrings. You can never guess what will come from Roys mouth when it comes to all the killings. Then again his brother, Carl was a real manipulator both in how he loved and was loved in return, he always seem to think about himself. Always killing people who Roy liked and loved. It turned around with Natalie, and this is my excuse to turn you into the reading machine you are.

I was a bit hesitant to request this book. I loved Nesbo's early crime fiction, but as Harry Hole grew more popular the stories seemed to veer into American-style serial killer plots that I'm allergic to. But I do find his writing engaging and intelligent and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. It's certainly not a serial killer thriller with excessive and grotesque gore (whew!) though there are quite a few bodies strewn about.

Two brothers in a small Norwegian town high in the mountains have a close but tense relationship. The younger one is ambitious and greedy and has been plans for the town where he plans to be the "king" through his business dealings. His older brother is content to own a garage but is used to rescuing his brother when he gets in trouble. They are bound by childhood trauma, and some of the favors the older brother has done involve murdering others, which threatens to come to light. Apparently all of this is set up in a previous book, The Kingdom, and while I was able to put all the pieces together without trouble, it might be advisable to start with that book.

The initial setup seemed slow to me - mostly involving a complex business deal and an effort to bribe engineers working on a highway bypass to give a report that the bypass that would leave the town isolated (and would hurt local businesses) didn't grab me immediately, but I became increasingly absorbed not just in the characters (the narrator is well drawn and complex) but in the setting. Nesbo does a great job of inhabiting this place and its history and culture. Some of his descriptions are vivid and quite lovely, and his depiction of the community seems sociologically on target and entertaining.

It did bother me a bit that, for the plot to work, the populace had to have an unusually high proportion of sex offenders and devious wheeler-dealers, a kind of rural noir that is a bit jarring in such a beautiful setting, though maybe it's not that different than the Ozarks.... in any case, that was a niggling reservation for me, though ultimately I think he pulled it off by delving so deeply into the main characters, the peripheral ones, and their relationships.

This is the continuation of the story of two brothers introduced in The Kingdom. Carl and Roy, bound by secrets, lies and murder still feel the family ties that have kept them enslaved for years. Roy is feeling the pressure of these nefarious acts he has accomplished and wondering where his life is headed. More a psychological story than a murder mystery I could feel the tension and sense something big was going to happen and I was not disappointed.

Highly recommend!