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  • Published: 2 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9780099587156
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $17.99

The Snowman

A GRIPPING WINTER THRILLER FROM THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER




Beware the falling snows... The first snowfall in Oslo brings a series of gruesome murders, and Harry Hole is pitted against a brutal killer who will drive him to the edge.

The night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother's pink scarf.

Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a link between the disappearance and a menacing letter he received some months earlier. As Harry and his team delve into unsolved case files, they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. When a second woman disappears Harry's suspicions are confirmed: he is a pawn in a deadly game. For the first time in his career Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his turf, a killer who will drive him to the brink of insanity.

A brilliant thriller with a pace that never lets up, The Snowman confirms Jo Nesbø's position as an international star of crime fiction.

  • Published: 2 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9780099587156
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $17.99

Other books in the series

About the author

Jo Nesbo

Jo Nesbo is one of the world’s bestselling crime writers, with The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son, The Thirst and Knife all topping the Sunday Times bestseller charts. He’s an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 45 million copies around the world.

Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbo played football for Norway’s premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years military service he attended business school and formed the band Di Derre (‘Them There’). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel, The Bat.

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Praise for The Snowman

Every now and then, a truly exceptional crime novel come along... This superb novel...deserves comparison with the first volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy

Joan Smith, The Sunday Times

The Snowman is a superb thriller. Jo Nesbo is astonishingly good; he knows how to grab you, by the throat and by the heart

Jeff Abbott

This is chilling, spectacular stuff and anyone looking for serious, and seriously compelling, crime writing need look no further

Mark Billingham

Chillingly adept...creepy, creepy stuff from the very first page

Time Out

Nesbo, in his fifth, most wide-ranging novel, gradually tightens the narrative grip until, throughout the last 100 pages, the reader also finds it hard to breathe

Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

Nesbo's plotting and pared-back prose style effectively keeps the reader hooked as he ramps up the action to a gripping climax

Big Issue

A strong, pacey narrative with plenty of gruesome discoveries

Laura Wilson, The Guardian

Hole is all a fictional detective should be...each scene is succinct, dovetails with another, shifts the reader's perspective, and keeps the pace fast and interesting...he ensures his readers keep turning the page to read more

Times Literary Supplement

Norwegian crime novel that's as gripping as The Silence of the Lambs

The Sunday Times

Nesbo handles the tension with aplomb

Metro

Many authors know how to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Jo Nesbo's one of the few who keeps them there

Linwood Barclay

The quality of the writing (and its translation) is so impressive

Literary Review

Nesbo is shaping up to be the next big name in Scandinavian crime fiction... With its tensile-steel narrative grip, this most ambitious of Nesbo's crime novels banishes any fears that the omniscient serial killer scenario has been exhausted

Barry Forshaw, Independent

With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision, to my own satisfaction, on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction. After finishing Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, I hesitate no longer. The Norwegian wins... This is crime writing of the highest order, in which the characters are as strong as the story, where an atmosphere of evil permeates, and the tension never lets up

Marcel Berlins, The Times

There is no doubt in my mind that The Snowman is the best so far of Jo Nesbø's series about Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo police... The Snowman is a complex, intellectually satisfying plot with many twists and turns... Do yourself a favour and read it

Eurocrime

An ingenious, bizarre and exceptional serial-killer investigation...as riveting as The Silence of the Lambs

Sunday Times Summer Reading

Readers wondering where to turn after finishing Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy would be well advised to give Jo Nesbo a try. His Oslo-set thrillers about troubled detective Harry Hole feature a similar mix of icebound settings, relentless action, sexual violence and social comment

John Williams, Guardian

Inventive and extremely creepy

Daily Mail

My crime fiction book of the year so far

Marcel Berlins, Sunday Times

A must-read for Stieg Larsson fans, this pacey crime thriller blends enthralling storytelling with an insightful take on controversial issues

Grazia

Everything zips along, with some excellent red herrings in a tight plot... Nesbo keeps you turning the pages and if your idea of the perfect crime novel is to see Inspector Rebus investigating killings from The Silence of the Lambs, you'll love this

The Times

Jo Nesbo conjures up such a gripping sense of terror in The Snowman that his tale of a perverted serial killer with a penchant for the titular figures leaves your wits scrambled

Siobhan Murphy, Metro

One of the stars of contemporary crime fiction

Martin Josephs, The Times

Nesbo effortlessly shows what can be done with the classic detective story, employing clever tricks to maintain almost unbearable suspense

Joan Smith, Sunday Times, Christmas round up

Consolidated his reputation as a Scandinavian novelist ready to fill any Larsson-shaped holes. Nesbo, one ex-rock star who can write, fuses urgent storytelling with a keen engagement with social issues

Barry Forshaw, Independent, Christmas round up

A superb, tasty, huge page-turner... Seriously scary but a superior thriller

Vince Cable, Evening Standard, Christmas round up

My big book discovery this time was The Snowman by Jo Nesbo - it's about a Norwegian detective who has to investigate a series of gruesome murders. What could be better for holiday entertainment

Bruno Tonioli, Mail on Sunday

THE NEXT STIEG LARSSON

Independent

Jo Nesbo is my new favourite thriller writer and Harry Hole my new hero

Michael Connelly

[A] dark, chilling, page-turner

Deborah D. Rogers, Times Higher Education, *Summer Reads of 2021*

With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision, to my own satisfaction, on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction. After finishing Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, I hesitate no longer. The Norwegian wins... This is crime writing of the highest order, in which the characters are as strong as the story, where an atmosphere of evil permeates, and the tension never lets up

Marcel Berlins, The Times

With his fury at official corruption, and reckless brutal integrity, this rebel Oslo cop looks well placed to secure the loyalty of Stieg Larsson fans

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Nesbø is shaping up to be the next big name in Scandinavian crime fiction, now that Mankell is on the point of retiring and Stieg Larsson is hors de combat

Barry Forshaw, Independent

Hole is all a fictional detective should be ...each scene is succinct, dovetails with another, shifts the reader's perspective, and keeps the pace fast and interesting ... he ensures his readers keep turning the page to read more.

Times Literary Supplement

Many authors know how to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Jo Nesbø's one of the few who keeps them there.

Linwood Barclay

Everything zips along, with some excellent red herrings in a tight plot...Nesbo keeps you turning the pages and if your idea of the perfect crime novel is to see Inspector Rebus investigating killings from The Silence of the Lambs, you'll love this

The Times

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