The Kingdom

July 20, 2020
This twisty standalone from bestseller Nesbø (the Harry Hole series) centers on the complex relationship between brothers Roy and Carl Opgard, who grew up in a remote Norwegian village. In a hunting mishap, 15-year-old Carl mortally wounds the family dog, but it’s 16-year-old Roy who puts the animal out of its misery and later lies to their parents about who had the guts to do so. Indeed, Roy has always cleaned up Carl’s messes. As adults, the brothers go their separate ways, but old secrets threaten to surface when Carl returns with his wife to the village, where he hopes to build a hotel that will make him rich, a venture that Roy, who runs a gas station and convenience store, is skeptical of. The revelation that Carl may have been sexually abused by their father, who died with their mother in a car crash officially deemed accidental years before, suggests trouble to come. The resulting bloodshed feels both unsettling and inevitable. Fans of classic noir such as Double Indemnity will be hooked. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

August 1, 2020
The latest stand-alone from the chronicler of Inspector Harry Hole puts all the murky, violent twists on brotherly love that you'd expect from this leading exponent of Nordic noir. Roy Calvin Opgard has always been joined at the hip to his kid brother, Carl Abel Opgard, though not in the ways you'd expect. Carl was clearly his father's favorite, and years ago he left Norway for Canada, where he made quite the reputation as an entrepreneur, while Roy stayed behind to run a petrol station his dreams merely stretched to owning. When Carl returns to Os, it's with a beautiful bride, Barbados-born Shannon Alleyne, and an ambitious plan to build the Os Spa and Mountain Hotel on land the brothers inherited when their parents plunged to their deaths in the prized Cadillac Raymond Opgard bought from conniving Willum Willumsen. But there's more to Carl's noble-sounding scheme to finance the project by distributing ownership shares among the townsfolk than he lets on. And Carl's return to his hometown unearths long-simmering tensions between the brothers and threatens to reveal long-buried secrets about the deaths of their parents, the disappearance long ago of sheriff Sigmund Olsen, whose son, Kurt, now holds the sheriff's job, and the checkered sexual histories of both Carl and Roy. Nesb� peels away the secrets surrounding Carl's project, his backstory, and his connections to his old neighbors so methodically that most readers, like frogs in a gradually warming pan of water, will take quite a while to realize just how extensive, wholesale, and disturbing those secrets really are. The illusions of a family and its close-knit town constructed and demolished on a truly epic scale.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 14, 2020

Nordic noir powerhouse Nesb� (Knife) is back with a bleakly captivating stand-alone thriller exploring the tension that arises when morality clashes with familial duties. Filling station manager Roy Opgard has long embraced the role of his younger brother's keeper and warmly welcomes the return of Carl, who moved from their remote Norwegian family farm to seek education and riches. Traveling from Canada, Carl and his young wife, Shannon, have big plans to turn the remote mountaintop land into a destination resort in an effort to save their hometown, the beleaguered Os, bolster his professional reputation, and showcase his wife's architecture. As Carl works to build buy-in for his project, old secrets arise, including the circumstances surrounding a car accident that killed both Opgard parents when the brothers were teens. The remote Os hides even more tragedy and evil. VERDICT Nesb� 's slow-burn thriller is guaranteed to be in high demand. As the story unfolds, it builds in dread and depravity. The small-town atmosphere resembles a Peyton Place as envisioned in an unlikely collaboration between Raymond Chandler and Henrik Ibsen. The complex characters and twisting plot will keep readers turning the pages and eager to discuss. [See Prepub Alert, 3/4/20.]--Jon Jeffryes, Grand Valley State Univ., MI

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2020
With echoes of such classic noir authors as Dorothy B. Hughes, James M. Cain, and Jim Thompson, Nesb� returns with a creepy stand-alone featuring Roy Opgard, an introverted auto mechanic in a remote Norwegian village who attempts to live by his father's dictum: "It's us against absolutely everybody else." Unfortunately, in the Opgard family, the dysfunction runs deep and deadly. As the self-appointed protector of his younger brother, Carl, the victim of sexual abuse, Roy does what he feels must be done, but the need for protecting is far from over. Yes, Carl escapes the village by going to America, but when he returns, seemingly a successful entrepreneur with a beautiful wife, Roy goes on high alert. First, it's clear that Carl's scheme to build a luxury hotel near the village is severely flawed, and, worse, there's Carl's wife, to whom Roy is immediately attracted and who seems to be in an abusive relationship with Carl. We watch in horror as the protector becomes more proactive in dealing with perceived threats. That horror is made all the more tangible, thanks to Roy's self-awareness: "The beast was rolling faster now. On its way toward that hell for which we are all bound . . . those of us with the heart for murder." Nesb� brilliantly uses the insularity of Roy's world, both internally and externally, to accentuate the Shakespearean inevitability of the impending tragedy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)