The World Map Has a Mystery to be Found--

Over the years, the mystery novels the book club had selected and read have jumped around the
world with busy detectives--whether employed by law enforcement agencies or not--and
amoral criminals.  From Beijing in China (Peter May's The Firemaker) to Ghana in Africa
(Kwei Quaterey's The Wife of the Gods), the world is crowded with too many resorting
to murder.  In our regular meeting space, we have but to look up at the wall on the right 
to see a nicely-detailed world map that on occasion helps to find where in the world 
the novel is set.  Granted, most mysteries are stateside or in Great Britain but we are not
restricted with these spots with our monthly book club selections.

Take for instance Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat in Thailand and Anne Holt's
1222: a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel in Norway which were scheduled a year apart.  These stories
are set in very different environments and the settings shape the tone of the novels.  Cotterill
looks for humor in human interactions while Holt's tale is somber in the cold environment.
 
It is ever bit of an adventure to read a good international mystery explore the world from
comfortable chair or couch.  And when desired it is helpful to find this certain locale on the
world map. 

Book club discusses "The Snowman"

The book club's July selection was Norway's crime writer Jo Nesbø's The Snowman. It is the seventh in the series featuring Oslo police Inspector Harry Hole.  A trained expert serial killers, Hole receives a letter telling of the arrival of a "snowman" with the first season's snow and the threat of death. In closing, the letter makes mention of a deceased serial killer Hole had investigated.

Jo Nesbø
(photo from author's website)

The threat turns real as one missing woman has a snowman placed at her home with her scarf around its neck.  Later, her part of her dismembered body is bizarrely attached to the snowman and the police investigation turns to homicide and the exploration of a trail of murders which form the ritual of a killer.  A new partner, Katrine Bratt, joins Harry and he assembles a small detective team for a case which can burn him professionally if anyone missteps.

   

Borrowing from the noir tradition, Nesbø's Hole is a recovering alcoholic with an uneven personal life.  His long-time girl friend broke off the relationship because of his devotion to the job and he works in a stressful and troubled environment.  Despite it all, including physical scars here and there, Hole is committed and determined to see his cases through.

One book club attendee had read Nesbø's work before.  The comments about The Snowman included the following:

• the story shows good detective work
• the detectives thought outside the box with the investigation
• noticed the people in the community are "more inward and protective," not inclined to shard feelings and also very conscious about their image
• good benefits may come from a small(er) team of investigating detectives on a case (as Harry requests and receives in the book) 
• "hard time reading it" and "kept putting it down"
• hated the "eerie, creepy, weird" elements of the story
• "dark and stupid" 
• Harry drinks a lot--common for detectives in mystery stories. 

And in a move that doesn't happen often, two different attendees read passages from the book which they liked.

The author's website notes this novel won "Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize 2007 for Best Novel of the Year and with The Norwegian Book Club Prize (Den norske leserprisen) 2007 for Best Novel of the Year."

The "Harry Hole" story is expected to receive a big screen treatment as famed Hollywood director Martin Scorsese is reportedly set to direct a movie based on The Snowman .