Having just read “The Snowman” I was excited and impatient to read more of Jo Nesbo’s books. There are many great things about this book, but unfortunately a few things that were a little disappointing.
Firstly, the characters as always are great. I absolutely love Harry Hole (the main character) and have become quite defensive of him. Automatically disliking any character that does not treat him with respect. As well as being pleased by any character that does respect him and admires him. But I digress.
The story was quite slow to hook me. It was possibly a quarter of the way through the book before I was ‘hooked’. The middle was great, lots of detective work and slow unravelling of the robberies. I enjoyed the parallel plot – one around the robberies running parallel to Harry possibly murdering someone. However the ending was a little disappointing. I felt that rather than develop the completion of the story, the author was running to close to his deadline so tied up everything really quickly leaving the ending to be explained to the reader through having the characters explain everything to each other. Or, the twists were so confusing that it required the ‘character explanation’.
Due to the mess of the ending, and the slow start, I am giving this book three stars. I still love the characters and the parallel plots, however I do not feel that the ending did the story justice. I despise having to feel like a fool for not understanding what has happened, and requiring the characters to explain it to me.
