The Son: A Novel by Jo Nesbo

If you enjoyed Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, you may also be or might want to become a fan of Jo Nesbo, now considered to be the top Scandanavian crime fiction writer (with the death of Larsson, who come to think of it, did die under mysterious circumstances...hmmm).

Apparently quite the prolific author, The Son: A Novel is the first Larsson novel I've read.  While I thought it was good, it was not quite the page-turner I was hoping it would be.  

Sonny Lofthus, he of the title, has been in prison serving time for a double murder.  He is innocent, but has found that copping to murders in exchange for a steady supply of heroin is just A-Ok with him.  He continues to reliably confess to crimes to keep the chain of heroin unbroken.  I know; it's complicated.  He is also, for reasons I found cloudy, thought to possess spiritual powers with which other prisoners find comfort and forgiveness. Long story short, Sonny's father was a cop who was accused of corruption and committed suicide.  When Sonny finds out that his father was set-up, he masterminds an escape plan and walks out of the maximum security prison with ridiculous ease. He is set on revenge.  

The main character is a little hard to connect with and some of the circumstances of the story seem just too far-fetched. The "good cop" character, Simon Kefas, was much more fully developed and had a good backstory.  If you're looking for a fairly undemanding read (just skip over the Norwegian street names and towns, as I did with this novel and all the Larsson novels; wasted too much time trying to figure out how the heck to pronounce them. What does it matter, really?) The Son: A Novel isn't bad; it just isn't great.

I'm not including a quote from the book because there really weren't any passages that jumped off the page and gob-smacked me :(

My Rating **