115. The Snowman
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by:
Author: Jo Nesbø
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Suspense
383 pages, published May 10, 2011
Reading Format: Audio Book
Summary
In The Snowman, internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø tells the tale of Harry Hole, a troubled police investigator in modern day Oslo, Norway as he tries to track down a serial killer who murders unfaithful women during the first snowfall of winter and leaves a snowman as his calling card. As his investigation deepens, Hole discovers that he has become a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game with a sinister killer.
Quotes
“Evil is not a thing. It cannot take possession of you. It’s the opposite; it’s a void, an absence of goodness. The only thing you can be frightened of here is yourself.”
“Good stories are never about a string of successes but about spectacular defeats,” Støp had said. “Even though Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole, it’s Robert Scott the world outside Norway remembers. None of Napoleon’s victories is remembered like the defeat at Waterloo. Serbia’s national pride is based on the battle against the Turks at Kosovo Polje in 1389, a battle the Serbs lost resoundingly. And look at Jesus! The symbol of the man who is claimed to have triumphed over death ought to be a man standing outside the tomb with his hands in the air. Instead, throughout time Christians have preferred the spectacular defeat: when he was hanging on the cross and close to giving up. Because it’s always the story of the defeat that moves us most.”
“What is worse? Taking the life of a person who wants to live or taking death from a person who wants to die.”
“We’re capable of understanding that someone has to drop an atomic bomb on a town of innocent civilians, but not that others have to cut up prostitutes who spread disease and moral depravity in the slums of London. Hence we call the former realism and the latter madness.”
“if every baby was a perfect miracle, life was basically a process of degeneration.”
My Take
While The Snowman has a certain level of creepiness to it, I was very quickly hooked into this story of a diabolical serial killer set against the unique backdrop of Norway. Nesbø is a master of twists and there is no shortage of them in The Snowman. I was also impressed by the character development and motivation in the story, especially of the protagonist Harry Hole. If you like mysteries and crime thrillers, then The Snowman is worth checking out.