What is it with the Nordic nations? Surely there cannot be a place on the planet that produces more first class crime novelists per capita. Such is the prolific nature of thriller writing there that Scandinavian writers have their own table in the Waterstones on Piccadilly, the only region afforded such exposure as far as I could see.
Most people have heard of Henning Mankell, surely the standard bearer, but behind come a raft of others: Arnaldur Indridason, Ake Edwardson, Karin Fossum, Asa Larsson, Hakan Nesser and more.
(And I realise that there is some debate about which countries are Scandinavian and which are not, and therefore that some of these writers will not consider themselves part of this category. And so I humbly apologise for any offence but I don't really want to get into these historic and cultural arguments here)
Perhaps it is the cold dark winters that leave a lot of time for black imagination? Perhaps the ancient Viking blood has left a murderous imprint?
Whatever the reason we should be grateful that the conveyor belt is strong, and that it produces such luminaries as Jo Nesbo, a musician and economist, capable of writing stories as richly-textured, complex and beautifully-crafted as The Redbreast.
The Redbreast is the second novel featuring Oslo detective Harry Hole, a man who at first site looks something like the stereotypical loner police detective. A man with a certain disdain for the rules and a certain love of the bottle.
But there's nothing cliched about Hole, who nurtures and encourages colleagues, is valued by his superiors, is independently-minded without being maverick and who has a surprisingly sympathetic and romantic soul.
In The Redbreast, Hole finds himself with varied duties. As the story opens he is assisting with security for the visit of the American president to Oslo at the turn of the century when the Norwegian capital was at the heart of attempts to bring peace to the Middle East. But his actions there are merely a prelude to him moving to a different branch of the security services where he immediately finds himself investigating the possibility that a rare Marklin rifle has been imported into Norway by someone intent on a possible assassination attempt.
The reader, at least two or three steps ahead thanks to a multi viewpoint narrative, knows this to be the case, as an old man who fought with fellow Norwegians on the eastern front with the Nazis during the second world war, is indeed plotting the deaths of unknown individuals for reasons of a betrayal of some sort. A third thread traces (we suspect early on, but it is not clear) the life and times of the old man at the front.
Still further narratives examine an underbelly of racism in Oslo society and the rise of neo-nazism as well as the misogynistic activities of a senior civil servant in Norway's diplomatic corps.
At first it is devilishly difficult to work out how and where these disparate strands intersect (and in fact it's still fairly difficult 100 pages out from the book's breathless, dramatic ending) but it scarcely matters as each is fascinating in its own way, offering either a revealing glimpse into Norway's present or a fascinating reminder of a recent past of occupation, collaboration and resistance that Nesbo makes sure the reader understands is neither as black or as white as many would have us believe.
And although the story rattles along at a good pace, it is allowed to develop carefully, over a number of months as Norway moves from the brutality of its winter into the hope and joy of a spring and all too brief summer. (Perhaps when one season is so long, dominant and difficult it is natural that the climate and environment should be given a life of its own by writers - as Nesbo does here and as Indridason and Mankell have also done to great effect).
And as the story moves on, Hole becomes ever more engaging, events more intriguing and the story ever more compelling.
This book has been well received critically, and rightly so. It is top tier from beginning to end, and a worthy addition to the vast and growing body of Nordic crime fiction.
For a review of Jo Nesbo's latest thriller, Nemesis, click here.