Review: Phantom by Jo Nesbo

Phantom by Jo Nesbo
Publisher: Random House/Knopf
Publish Date: October 2, 2012

From the jacket:

When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong-fleeing the traumas of life as a cop-he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city's highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.


Phantom kept me guessing the whole time I read it.  I haven't read every single Jo Nesbo book, but this was one of the best books I've read from him. Complicated but coherent, the plot incorporates and develops existing characters from his previous work while incorporating new and interesting characters.  Seeing the havoc that the drug Violin brings into the streets and people of Oslo as well as his beloved Oleg.  Harry has to comes to term with the results of leaving former love Raquel & her son Oleg and wonder whether sticking around might have helped Oleg.  Each discovery he makes and clues he uncovers bring him closer to a truth he might not want.  For me, the cherry on top of this delicious novel was the ending.  I love that Jo Nesbo was willing to go there.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

From Amazon:

In The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen introduced Detective Carl Mørck, a deeply flawed, brilliant detective newly assigned to run Department Q, the home of Copenhagen’s coldest cases. The result wasn’t what Mørck—or readers—expected, but by the opening of Adler-Olsen’s shocking, fast-paced follow-up, Mørck is satisfied with the notion of picking up long-cold leads. So he’s naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk: A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and one of the suspects—part of a group of privileged boarding-school students—confessed and was convicted.

But once Mørck reopens the files, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Looking into the supposedly solved case leads him to Kimmie, a woman living on the streets, stealing to survive. Kimmie has mastered evading the police, but now they aren’t the only ones looking for her. Because Kimmie has secrets that certain influential individuals would kill to keep buried . . . as well as one of her own that could turn everything on its head.

I loved Keeper of Lost Causes and have already pre-ordered this novel.  Can't wait for August 21, 2012.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.  We post about all the books we are waiting to be published.

This week I'm looking forward to Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist. He wrote Let the Right One in (Let Me In in the US). 



Per Amazon:
From the author of the international and New York Times bestseller Let the Right One In (Let Me In) comes this stunning and terrifying book which begins when a man's six-year-old daughter vanishes.One ordinary winter afternoon on a snowy island, Anders and Cecilia take their six-year-old daughter Maja across the ice to visit the lighthouse in the middle of the frozen channel. While the couple explore the lighthouse, Maja disappears -- either into thin air or under thin ice -- leaving not even a footprint in the snow. Two years later, alone and more or less permanently drunk, Anders returns to the island to regroup. He slowly realises that people are not telling him all they know; even his own mother, it seems, is keeping secrets. What is happening in Domaro, and what power does the sea have over the town's inhabitants?

Nook or Kindle

• I've been trying to decide for months now whether to get a Kindle or a Nook.  Now, Barnes & Nobles is selling refurbished Nooks on ebay for $79.   I actually like the Nook better for features and look but I'm not sure I should take the leap.  It is getting kind of claustrophobic reading on my cell or laptop.
• For the month of May, I'll be blogging Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project 
• I'm starting a garden; hopefully, I manage to survive the growing season. I have to do some research.
• I'm watching the HBO/BBC miniseries Five Days -- powerful stuff. 
• I love Scandinavian fiction. First Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist -- a vampire novel I could stomach to Mankell's Man from Beijing.
• I want a shellac manicure.  My hands look so raggedy.  I was so good until last week.