Books & Literature

Book Review: The Kingdom, by Jo Nesbo

THRILLER: Harry Hole is back with a tense and atmospheric standalone thriller about two brothers bound together by dark secrets.

Nesbo returns with a dark tale of two brothers, joined by birth, blood and a violent history.
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Jo Nesbo is best known for his extensive Harry Hole crime thrillers. In the last few years, he has released a number of stand-alone novels (The Son and Macbeth) and novellas (Blood on Snow and Midnight Sun).

The latest independent novel, The Kingdom, carries on his great tradition of dark, twisting Norwegian crime fiction and continues to demonstrate why Nesbo is recognised a leader in the genre.

In a small Norwegian town that is likely to be left to slowly perish due to a highway development, Carl Opgard returns home after several years abroad with a new wife and a vision to put his birthplace back on the map.

He comes home to his brother, Roy, who was his protector for many years (from bullies and an even more insidious threat) and begins to stir up the dust of memories and actions, long buried but never truly forgotten.

Over a series of seven different parts (plus a violent prologue event), Nesbo takes us through the childhoods, teenage years and early adult lives of the Opgard brothers, interweaving with the present day. Through this constantly moving time stream, we come to learn more about what made the brothers who they are – whilst trying to decipher the truth, separated from the townspeople’s opinions and suppositions – and discover that they are not alone in carrying a dark secret or two. This is an isolated town that would make Twin Peaks proud.

This novel, as with all of Nesbo’s previous, provides twists and turns that catch the reader unawares and, in its final part, barrels towards a conclusion that cements the place of The Kingdom in the canon of his works.

A minor issue is the English translation which at times, feels dry and almost linguistically forced to accommodate the transition from the original Norwegian text. It also raises a wry smile when a character makes a statement and the words “he said in English” are included in the English translation.

The Kingdom, in spite of a few faults, is a cracking crime thriller, true to Norwegian dark crime genre and embracing Nesbo’s changing writing style (his last Harry Hole novel, Knife, a severe departure in tone from the novels preceding it). It will grab you by the throat and won’t let go, clinging on long after you’ve put it away.

Reviewed by Glen Christie

Distributed by: Penguin Books Australia
Released: September 2020
RRP: $32.99

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