I’m not a fan of blood and gore thrillers in film, but put the stuff in a book
and I’m hooked. Jo Nesbo’s latest in the genre begins with terror and rare-
ly allows the reader time to breathe a sigh of relief. The Leopard starts
roughly where The Snowman left off, with Harry Hole now living in Hong
Kong where gambling and opium dictate his life – but not for long since
the Norwegian police need help solving another murder spree back on his
home tundra.
Hole doesn’t take long to determine the murders are related. Just as he
did in the previous novel, Nesbo takes readers on a hold-onto-your hats,
whiplash-inducing ride from one possibility to another, then back again,
and again. Additionally, he throws in several subplots just to keep things
really moving. The lure that actually brings Hole back to Norway is not
the challenge of the chase, it’s his near-death, elderly father. As Hole
unpacks the emotional baggage this creates, he establishes the connect-
ion of the murders, pines for his ex-wife and stepson, is attracted to a
female investigator, and is entangled in a turf war between the Oslo crime
unit and state police. This may sound like standard mystery ingredients, but
they’re not. And, it may make Hole seem like a superhero, but no way.
The beauty of Nesbo’s writing is the attention to detail, the depth of his
characters, and the thrill he creates as they battle to thwart or uphold
justice in very human ways.
The Leopard
Four Bookmarks
Adolph A. Knopf, 2012
517 pages
The Blue Page Special 