Most impressive book read by The Bookman in 2010

The Leopard

Jo Nesbo

Harvill Secker $39.99

Pub 4/2/2011

In the last days of 2010 I read a book that absolutely knocked the stuffing out of me. For three days I couldn’t put it down until finally 614 pages later I finished it in a state of shock. Now I can’t get the characters out of my mind. I am lost somewhere is Oslo.

This was not only the finest and most chilling crime fiction novel read during the year, perhaps for several years actually, this was also the most impressive and gripping fiction of any genre read by me in 2010. Okay so I had read and enjoyed Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, and Lloyd Jones’ first novel since the remarkable Mister Pip, Hand Me Down World, Ransom by David Malouf, all the Man Booker shortlisted titles and a host of other excellent novels but in the end I have to say that they paled in comparison to Jo Nesbo’s The Leopard.
Sadly for those reading this blog The Leopard is not published, in this part of the world anyway, until next month.

Somehow, and I am puzzled by this, I had not come across Nesbo before and yet this is his fifth novel to be translated into English by Don Bartlett. I have since tracked down and in the first two days of 2011 read the previous novel to this one, The Snowman, and now have the earlier three titles on order. It would probably have been better to have read The Snowman first although both are stand –alone novels. As you can’t get The Leopard until next month I suggest you go out and buy The Snowman now. Not quite as substantial as The Leopard’s 600+ pages it is nevertheless a biggie at 456 pages and every bit as gripping.