The Scandi crime novels I read are normally Swedish. I read them in the original Swedish. I find many of them a bit dark and gloomy for me though.
Jo Nesbo is a Norwegian author so I chose to read the book translated to English. I can read basic Norwegian and Danish, but I would never be able to manage a long novel like this. It is my first Nesbo book, but will not be my last. Harry Hole reminds me of Harry Bosch. Even Michael Connelly (the author of Bosch) loves Nesbo.
On the plus side, I loved the storyline, the landscape, and the strong complement of supporting characters. On the minus side: I found the sudden twists a bit too much after a while, and the book was too long. It was also unnecessarily brutal in places. I may not be the typical reader, but gratuitous descriptions of violence are not necessary to form a mental image of something. I am not sure if it is typical of Harry Hole but I will be finding out because I will be reading another one. I am not sure which one yet, but I would like to read more than one to form a proper opinion.
I picked this particular book up at a charity shop, so it is from the middle of the series. Like the Harry Bosch series, however, it does not matter because most of the story is stand-alone.
