The Son

Starred review from March 24, 2014
This excellent standalone from Nesbø, best known for his Harry Hole series (Police, etc.), centers on Sonny Lofthus (aka the Son), who’s serving a sentence at Oslo’s Staten Maximum Security Prison for two murders to which he confessed but which he did not commit. Sonny began using drugs before his incarceration, after his police officer father, Ab, hanged himself, leaving a note in which Ab confessed to having been a dirty cop. To manipulate Sonny, prison officials, lawyers, and police enable Sonny’s habit. When another inmate, Johannes Halden, who’s dying of cancer, begs for Sonny’s forgiveness after admitting a role in framing Ab and making his murder look like suicide, Sonny stops taking drugs and later escapes from prison with Johannes’s help. He launches a killing spree targeting those he suspects of having destroyed his father—in particular, a gangster known as the Twin, who controls a criminal enterprise encompassing human trafficking, drugs, and money laundering. A love affair between Sonny and Martha Lian, director of a center for drug addicts where Sonny stays, adds another exciting dynamic. Nesbø takes the reader on a chilling ride with many unexpected twists. 150,000-copy announced first printing. Author tour. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

Starred review from April 15, 2014
A deftly plotted novel that probes the deepest mysteries: sin, redemption, love, evil, the human condition. After he seemingly brought Harry Hole back from the dead in his last novel (Police, 2013), Norway's Nesbo gives his popular protagonist a breather, shelving the detective in favor of a stand-alone novel that plunges deeply into the religious allegory that has frequently framed his work (The Redeemer, 2013). In fact, the symbolism might initially seem laid on pretty thick for readers looking to solve a satisfying whodunit. Sonny Lofthus, the son of the title, is introduced as a prisoner with "healing hands," one who was "prepared to take your sins upon himself and didn't want anything in return." Like Christ, he suffers for the sins of others and offers redemption. He is also a hopeless junkie. His back story suggests that Sonny was a boy of considerable promise, a champion wrestler and model student, proud son of a police officer. Then, when he was 18, he was devastated by the suicide of his father, who left a note confessing his corruption as the mole within the department, and the subsequent death of his heartbroken mother. After Sonny turned to drugs, he found himself in a web of evil; if he would confess to murders he hadn't committed, the corrupt prison system would keep him supplied with heroin. Then a fellow prisoner comes to him for confession and reveals a secret that turns Sonny's world upside down, inspiring him to kick his habit, plot an ingenious escape and turn himself into an "avenging angel," delivering lethal retribution. The inspector obsessed with the case had a complicated relationship with Sonny's father, and it remains uncertain until the climax (in a church, naturally) whether he wants to be Sonny's captor or his collaborator. It's a novel in which one character muses on "how innocence walks hand-in-hand with ignorance. How insight never clarifies, only complicates." One of Nesbo's best, deepest and richest novels, even without Harry Hole.

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April 15, 2014
As a teenager, Sonny Lofthus learns of his father's death--the circumstances of which disgrace his family and catapult Sonny into despair. To cope with his loss, Sonny seeks escape through heroin and at age 18 admits to crimes he did not commit. As payment for his confession, corrupt Oslo prison staff, lawyers, and a priest supply Sonny with a steady stream of heroin. Then, 12 years later, the same faction threatens to cut off Sonny's heroin supply unless he confesses to a murder. At the same time, a fellow inmate provides Sonny with new information about his father's death. Sonny breaks out of prison to make the people responsible pay for their treachery. While Oslo police search for Sonny, he untangles a web of corruption throughout the city. VERDICT The best-selling author of the Harry Hole series ("Redeemer; Nemesis") delivers an exceptional, gritty, fast-paced stand-alone thriller; the smooth transitions among each character's perspectives lure readers in, and Barslund's translation is accessible to American readers. Fans of the most recent Hole novels as well as of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy will enjoy Nesbo's tightly knit plot.--Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2014
On the surface, Nesb's gripping new stand-alone might seem like another installment of the Harry Hole series but featuring a new cast of characters. A serial killer is at work in Oslo, and a maverick cop with his share of personal demons is on his trail. But beneath that surface, there is a complex psychological thriller churning its way into the reader's nightmares. Sonny Lofthus is in prison for crimes he didn't commit but for which he has agreed to take the fallin exchange for an unending supply of heroin. The drugs are Sonny's way of dealing with the knowledge that his father, an apparent suicide, was a dirty cop. As the novel begins, however, Sonny has new information about his father's death and has engineered a daring escape from prison. His revenge-fueled plan is to kill those responsible for the crimes he was convicted of by re-creating the murders with the real killers now the victims. The more we learn about Sonny, the more we root for him to evade capture, either by the police or by the crime lord who wants him dead. Juggling point of view between Sonny, Simon Kefas (the cop chasing him), and the various corrupt officials who risk exposure the longer Sonny is free, Nesb thwarts our every attempt to draw conclusions about both what happened in the past and who is the least guilty among the principals. There is an element of the classic film noir Breathless at work here but with more characters of varying shades of gray whose fates hinge on numerous moving parts. A terrific thriller but also a tragic, very moving story of intertwined characters swerving desperately to avoid the dead ends in their paths. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With 24 million copies of his books sold, Nesb is now second only to Stieg Larsson among Scandinavian crime writers. His fame is sure to grow still more as Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are about to begin filming The Snowman.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)