The Snowman

By: Jo Nesbo, Don Bartlett - translator

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

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The first snow will come

A young boy wakes to find his mother missing. Their house is empty but outside in the garden he sees his mother's favourite scarf – wrapped around the neck of a snowman.

And then he will appear again

As Harry Hole and his team begin their investigation they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years.

And when the snow is gone...

When a second woman disappears it seems that Harry's worst suspicions are confirmed: for the first time in his career Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his home turf.

...he will have taken someone else

Critic reviews

This is chilling, spectacular stuff and anyone looking for serious, and seriously compelling, crime writing need look no further (Mark Billingham)

One of the stars of contemporary crime fiction (Martin Josephs)

Every now and then, a truly exceptional crime novel come along... This superb novel...deserves comparison with the first volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (Joan Smith)

Jo Nesbo is my new favourite thriller writer and Harry Hole my new hero (Michael Connelly)

Everything zips along, with some excellent red herrings in a tight plot... Nesbo keeps you turning the pages and if your idea of the perfect crime novel is to see Inspector Rebus investigating killings from The Silence of the Lambs, you'll love this

Nesbo, in his fifth, most wide-ranging novel, gradually tightens the narrative grip until, throughout the last 100 pages, the reader also finds it hard to breathe (Mark Sanderson)

Many authors know how to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Jo Nesbo's one of the few who keeps them there

(Linwood Barclay)

Inventive and extremely creepy

A strong, pacey narrative with plenty of gruesome discoveries (Laura Wilson)

The Snowman is a superb thriller. Jo Nesbo is astonishingly good; he knows how to grab you, by the throat and by the heart

Fabulous

As I have written 2 disparaging reviews in a row I thought I'd better write a positive one. This is a beautifully crafted, story with credible characters. A good rip-along yarn.
The narrator was a joy to listen to and he certainly made the book most exciting. Mr Barrett gave a performance so skilful that I didn't notice it... I was ' living in the story' rather than being told a story. I wish there were more readers like this.

The Snowman

Another great book from this Author.Keeps you intriged all the way through.Looking forward to the next book.

The Snowman

Fantastic story! Could not put it down. Loved the narrator. I found his voice very soothing and relaxing.

The Snowman

Fantastic!!!!!
I loved the book and I usually dont read murder mysteries....got the chills more than once and its really a great story very well narrated and it keeps you on edge

Gripping - Practically a horror novel

Certainly a gripping, can't-put-it-down, finish-it-in-the-wee-hours book, but it's also almost a horror story. One more gruesome killing of a terrified woman, one more child with evil seething around him, and one more bout of Harry's horrific lapses into booze, and I'd have to put this one down as horror rather than mystery or crime. But the character development, the plotting, the pacing and the building of tension are all absolutely professional and highly impressive.

On the down side, there are a few unnecessary clichés: the relatively incompetent and sexist underling male cop who looks askance at the new and more competent female cop. Has that one not been done enough yet? (Mind you, maybe it was still somewhat fresh back when the novel was originally penned!) And Harry's battle with booze. I am so tired of cops and detectives with a drinking problem. The only thing different about Harry's drinking is that it's horrible to read about - that one scene where he's already drunk and then goes home, opens a bottle of hard stuff and starts just draining it practically made me ill.

But these are quibbles, really. I'll be reading more about Harry soon, I'm sure, since I've pretty much exhausted P. D. James, John le Carré and Stieg Larsson.

On the unbelievability index, it rates about a 7 out of 10, especially toward the end, wehere things get a tad out of control, but that's about par for the course in cop/thriller/whodunnits, so no surprises there.
Sean Barraett outstanding with the delivery of the story