Review by Booklist Review
Village business-owner Roy Opgard's secret expertise is making murders look like accidental deaths. Unfortunately, forensic advancements threaten to reveal his old-school methods as the local sheriff closes in with recently discovered DNA gotchas. At the same time, Roy and his power-hungry hotelier brother, Carl, engineer an economic revival for their village, Os, by conning Norway's authorities into routing a highway through town. The prospective earnings secure funds for Roy's long-awaited dream project, but Carl manages to pull the cash out from under him and sabotage his new romantic relationship. As Roy counters the sheriff's moves with enviable strategic prowess, the weight of secrets, risks, and losses for Carl's sake begins to stack higher than brotherly love. Nesbø (best known for the Harry Hole procedural series) offers beautifully written literary suspense in the second novel featuring the Norwegian brothers (after The Kingdom, 2020) drawing readers in deep by playing Roy's ruthless logic against an onslaught of threats, emotional ties, and competing agendas. Readers will feel this one long after the final words. Backlist standouts Two Trains Running, by Andrew Vachss, and So Cold the River, by Michael Koryta, share the ever-compelling character-driven, corrupted small-town power theme.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Brothers Roy and Carl Opgard return in bestseller Nesbø's immersive and disturbing sequel to The Kingdom. Shortly after the events of the previous novel, the Opgards have settled into promising careers in the sleepy Norwegian town of Os: older brother Roy, who narrates, runs an auto repair shop and convenience store with dreams of building the world's largest wooden roller coaster on the property, while Carl owns a luxury hotel and spa with grand plans for expansion across Norway. The brothers' ambitions are threatened when they learn a planned highway is going to be routed away from Os, taking tourist dollars with it. Determined to keep his and Carl's dreams in sight, Roy reverts to his old role as the pair's "enforcer," engaging in violent schemes to control the highway project. Meanwhile, sheriff Kurt Olsen uncovers new evidence linking the Opgard brothers to old crimes, and launches a campaign to take them down. Nesbø brilliantly plunges readers into the psyche of a charming killer, leavening the bloodshed with pop culture references and dashes of the lacerating humor that suffuses his Harry Hole series. The result is a chilling and darkly funny noir that will haunt readers long after the last page. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Literary. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The prolific murdering brothers Roy and Carl Opgard--introduced inThe Kingdom (2020)--return for more bloody havoc in the Norwegian village of Os. When they were in their late teens, Roy and Carl, in retaliation for their father's longtime abuse of Carl and their mother's failure to do anything about it, sent the old man's Cadillac DeVille crashing into a ravine with both parents inside. When Roy, the supposedly protective older brother, was 35, he attempted to kill Carl for abusing his (Carl's) wife, Shannon--who was carrying Roy's baby. "I was a mass murderer who was absolutely ready to start a family," Roy says ruefully. Carl ends that hope by bashing Shannon's skull in, but the siblings quickly return to their default state, scheming together to save the hotel Carl runs and get financing for Roy to build an amusement park with the world's biggest rollercoaster. Potential investors resist Roy and Carl at their peril. Among them: the abusive father of Natalie, a drug-addicted singer Roy knows from childhood who now toys with his affections. Leave it to the crafty Nesbø, in deadpan mode, to treat Roy like any guy with problems--a "scrupulous" killer with a good heart and great taste in music (the late Eric Clapton crony J.J. Cale dominates the soundtrack). A populous novel that sometimes comes off like a twisted version ofOur Town, Nesbø's latest boasts a quirky comic edge. The book doesn't build to the kind of tense conclusion the Harry Hole creator is known for, but it's not that kind of story. At the start, Roy wonders, "Can anyone be a killer?" It takes a different type of murderer to ask that. A darkly entertaining thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
