I Heart x 400 Jo Nesbo!

Flower!

So... recently I learned two things on Deadline.com:


1. Jo Nesbo will have a new book out in Spring 2011

2. The screen rights to the new book, The Snowman, have been sold

That is good news married to more good news. While a huge chunk of the planet has made Stieg Larrsson the new J.K. Rowling I have been attending a different church, The House of Jo Nesbo.

Harry Hole is Nesbo's man. He's a loner, he drinks, he's prickly, he doesn't like authority and cannot successfully sustain a romantic relationship. In other words he has all the attributes of the cliche copper according to detective fiction. What makes him different? Jo Nesbo. In another writer's hands Harry would be the any one of a thousand detectives but Nesbo brings a hundred tiny details to Harry personality, full developed supporting casts and magnificent plotting to his mysteries. There is no room to relax when reading a Nesbo novel. He keeps the tension coming not just by superbly crafted stories and interesting villains but also by the relationships between his main characters, the victims, the witnesses and the suspects.

Harry Hole, like all the best anti-heroes, lives and works in a gritty world. Jo Nesbo is as good at creating atmosphere as he is storylines and characters. He uses locations and settings that enhance the underlying suspense in his stories and bring clarity to circumstance. Nesbo has recreated Oslo with all the detail of a travel writer but this Olso is not for tourists.

Coming to Harry recently delayed my love~~sob~~but did give me the opportunity to read a fist full of these addictive like crack novels in one long juggernaut of thrills. First up in the Harry Hole to read list is Redbreast, then Nemesis, The Devil's Star and coming in May 2011 will be The Snowman, but I was lucky enough to have the Brit edition where it is already available. There are other Hole mysteries: The Batman, The Cockroaches, The Redeemer and The Leopard that are available outside of the U.S. Batman and Cockroaches are the first and second books in the series but when HarperCollins decided to publish Nesbo in the U.S. they opted to start with book three. It looks like The Leopard will be released sometime after The Snowman. I'm not sure what is going on with The Redeemer. It's in print in Canada but not here...why? Getting these books you have to solve your own mysteries.

You know though, there is a down side to this the-first-one-is-free ecstasy/slavery I have been living. I am now caught up with all of Nesbo's books that have been translated into English. Damn. I should have listened to my Mama and learned Norwegian.

Happy

P.S. Jo Nesbo has a terrific website--best designed author site I've seen. Definitely worth a look. Don't miss the video trailer for The Snowman either.Warning! It will make the waiting more difficult!