
The Kingdom
A novel
by Jo Nesbo
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Pub Date Nov 10 2020 | Archive Date Jun 21 2021
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Description
Roy has never left the quiet mountain town he grew up in, unlike his little brother Carl who couldn't wait to get out and escape his troubled past. Just like everyone else in town, Roy believed Carl was gone for good. But Carl has big plans for his hometown. And when he returns with a mysterious new wife and a business opportunity that seems too good to be true, simmering tensions begin to surface and unexplained deaths in the town's past come under new scrutiny. Soon powerful players set their sights on taking the brothers down by exposing their role in the town's sordid history.
But Roy and Carl are survivors, and no strangers to violence. Roy has always protected his younger brother. As the body count rises, though, Roy's loyalty to family is tested. And then Roy finds himself inextricably drawn to Carl's wife, Shannon, an attraction that will have devastating consequences. Roy's world is coming apart and soon there will be no turning back. He'll be forced to choose between his own flesh and blood and a future he had never dared to believe possible.
Advance Praise
“Echoes of such classic noir authors as Dorothy B. Hughes, James M. Cain, and Jim Thompson … Nesbø brilliantly uses the insularity of Roy’s world, both internally and externally, to accentuate the Shakespearean inevitability of the impending tragedy.”–Booklist, Starred Review
“Nesbø peels away the secrets surrounding Carl’s project, his backstory, and his connections to his old neighbors so methodically that most readers, like frogs in a gradually warming pan of water, will take quite a while to realize just how extensive, wholesale, and disturbing those secrets really are. The illusions of a family and its close-knit town constructed and demolished on a truly epic scale.” –Kirkus, Starred Review
“Nesbø’s slow-burn thriller is guaranteed to be in high demand. As the story unfolds, it builds in dread and depravity. The small-town atmosphere resembles a Peyton Place as envisioned in an unlikely collaboration between Raymond Chandler and Henrik Ibsen. The complex characters and twisting plot will keep readers turning the pages and eager to discuss.” –Library Journal
"Twisty … Fans of classic noir such as Double Indemnity will be hooked.” –Publishers Weekly
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9780525655411 |
PRICE | $28.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 560 |
Links
Featured Reviews

This is an exceptionally written novel about family and the things we do to protect the ones we love. It's about secrets and how they fester in the soul, eating away at any sense of normality until they burst forth with malicious results.
Roy and Carl are brothers bound by secrets, those shared and those cloaked in silence. Roy, the older, vowed to always be there for his brother even though he felt he wasn't when it counted the most. He has spent his life making up for what he conceives was his fault, his job, with any means necessary. The consequences of both brother's actions will have devastating outcomes.
This book asks the age old question: Do we really know anyone?
Please add this one to your list.

I’m a big fan of his work, and this is no exception.It is long ,and the reader has to concentrate to get all of the nuances of the multiple characters.The main theme and the personality traits of the 2 main characters are all there in the first chapter. Family is everything, both the good and the bad traits, and that theme drives all of the events throughout the book. It is NOT a joyful read but it illustrates how the damage/ character traits formed in childhood color all of our actions as adults. Nesbo hits another home run.
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