Book Review: Jo Nesbø's Blood on Snow

This was yet another book recommended (and lent) to me by my mom. She loves these Scandinavian authors, and has gotten me into them now. 

This particular book was written by Jo Nesbø, who has received strong critical acclaim. It is also a rather short book, which means that you can probably finish it within a couple of days or so. 

The story starts out quite detached, almost to the point that it is confusing. The narrator, Olav, kind of skips around, juggling a lot of things, but it seems to lack cohesion. At least at first, this i the case, although it begins to all come together as the story goes along. 

He is a killer. A trained and professional one, at that. But when Olav makes a mistake and gets his old boss, Daniel Hoffman, very angry at him one day, he suddenly has to go into hiding. This is shortly after receiving what seems like a strange request by Hoffman: to fix his wife, Corina. To kill her, in other words.

Yet, despite his normal tendency to simply do his boss's bidding, he finds himself unable to kill Hoffman's wife and, in fact, finds himself falling in love with Corina. So, in trying to fix a solution to the problem  he inadvertently does something that Hoffman will find forever unforgivable. So Olav goes into hiding, but he takes Hoffman's wife with him into hiding. 

Also, he needs to go to his boss's big rival, the Fisherman. Yet, this itself has complications, since while the Fisherman and his men desire to eliminate their rival and know that they could use Olav's help in this regard, they distrust him, and Olav knows it and senses the danger. 

While all of this is happening, we learn quite a lot about Olav, who seems a bit strange at first. Again, I think detached is the word that best describes him. And this makes sense on the surface, given that Olav is a professional killer.

Only this description actually does not suit him so well, because as we learn, there is a whole lot more to this character than we are led to believe at first. He is intelligent and caring, almost to a fault. Plus, he is a dreamer, also to a fault. We learn about Maria, a woman who prostituted herself in order to free her boyfriend of his crushing debts. She is deaf and mute, and after killing her boyfriend at the behest of Hoffman, Olav gives all of the money he receives from the job to her, and grants her acts of kindness. We find out that he watches her, and looks out for her, although this is largely unknown to her. 

So, he is a different kind of a killer. One who reads a lot, although since this character is troubled on many levels, even his reading comes with complications (it's best for you to find out on your own by reading this novel for yourself, if the opportunity presents itself). But it is important to remember that he is, nonetheless, a killer, and does some things that most everybody would consider horrific. He kills people, and the reader witnesses this man kill someone right in front of a child, then watched transfixed by the apparently beautiful sight of the man's blood being soaked up by the pure white snow.

In the meantime, the narrator seems almost weak and lost by way of comparison to most other killers, and there is an assumption by the reader that he likely will not make it. 

However, Olav proves resourceful, imaginative, and has a strong instinct for what is going, to the point that it might surprise the reader. He manages to find ways to continually get the upper hand in almost every situation, although what he really longs to do is make some permanent escape from this dead end life that he has here. He dreams of running away, and taking Corina with him.

Yet, even his dreams of a perfect love takes several twists, and Nesbø's writing is going full throttle by the end of this fast-paced and engaging novel. A must read!