Book Report: The Snowman

1. Jo Nesbø, The Snowman (2010) (1/3/24)

And so a new year of books begins. Last year I managed to finish 26, having set only the modest goal on Goodreads of 24—so I made it. This year, no goal. I'll read what I read. (Maybe I am relaxing in retirement.)

I have read three other Nesbø books: his third Harry Hole (pron. Hoo-leh) mystery,  The Redbreast (before I started posting book reviews here); the first one, The Bat; and a kids' book. I read the second two in Norwegian, which became the main focus—i.e., simply understanding the words, never mind the plot. I remember being impressed with The Redbreast, which delves into WWII events as well as current-day repercussions (as it turns out)—though now that I read the summary on Wikipedia, I am struck by a definite convolutedness. The Bat, too, seemed unnecessarily complicated.

And now I arrive at Nesbø's seventh Harry Hole mystery, which readers deem his best—and I am forced to conclude that the man just really enjoys spinning impossibly knotted plots, full of red herrings (well, of course: it is a mystery) and unbelievable (to my mind, anyway) coincidences. This one involves the disappearance of women—who happen to be mothers—at the first snowfall, coincident with the mysterious appearance of a snowman. Eventually one of the women—or at least her head—is discovered deep in the forest, atop a snowman. And the hunt for the killer is on.

I actually like Harry Hole, flawed though he is. But I don't care for the misogyny. Even his partner here, a woman from the Bergen police force, turns out to be... unprofessional, I guess, is one word it. The only vaguely strong female character is the widow of a fellow police officer who was killed under Harry's watch, and she is a very minor player (so who knows what would happen if she became a major one). 

I didn't mind the several detours as Harry guessed wrong at who the perpetrator was, and I thought the ultimate motive of the actual murderer was interesting. But the final thrilling scene in which Harry saves a woman in peril was, I thought, utterly preposterous. Don't do that! You've got to make it at least somewhat believable at the end, for crying out loud.

I won't say any more about the plot. Some people seem to absolutely love this book. It's not a bad book, and I was carried along by the storytelling. I just, occasionally, had to roll my eyes (sometimes a lot). 

I was rather fond of one very incidental character, who actually gets the very last word in the book. He's a mold guy: a laborer who appears periodically, usually invisibly, as he works to rid Harry's apartment of a fungus, Aspergillus versicolor. One comment he makes along the way gives Harry the brainwave that allows him to close in on the killer. And as I say, he ends the book: "That's the thing about mold. You can't see it's there." (The same, we of course know, could be said for evil.) "But it is."