Wolf Hour
A Novel
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4.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From “one of today’s most interesting thriller writers” (Lee Child) comes an immersive, propulsive novel in which a detective and a crime writer conduct parallel investigations, six years apart, into a series of puzzling murders.
“[Nesbo] can heighten suspense with a single word and wrong-foot the most attentive customer.” —Wall Street Journal
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun dealer is shot down in the street, all signs point to Tomas Gomez, a quiet man with a mysterious past—and deep connections to a notorious gang—who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Other murders soon follow, and it appears Gomez is only getting started. Meanwhile, Bob Oz, a down-and-out suspended police officer with a dubious past of his own, becomes fascinated by the case: he is obsessed with the notion of hunting down a serial killer who only he can understand, a killer with a story as tragic as his own.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2022. An enigmatic Norwegian man with ties to Minneapolis—a self-described crime writer—has traveled to the United States to research the Gomez case, in the hopes of writing a book about it. But as his investigation progresses, the writer’s seemingly neutral position reveals itself to be more complicated than the reader is initially led to believe.
Wolf Hour is a twisty and unforgettable thriller in classic Jo Nesbø style, which bears out Vanity Fair’s observation that “Nesbø explores the darkest criminal minds with grim delight and puts his killers where you least expect to find them. . . . His novels are maddeningly addictive.”
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Nordic noir master Jo Nesbø heads stateside, delivering a deviously structured standalone thriller set in Minneapolis. In 2016, a sniper murders a gang leader in broad daylight, and detective Bob Oz—a brilliant cop but a hotheaded, rule-breaking train wreck—becomes obsessed with catching the killer. Nesbø masterfully braids this investigation with a 2022 timeline where a Norwegian writer arrives to research the case for a true-crime book. But his neutral-journalist position turns out to be far more complicated than it first appears. The dual structure lets Nesbø pile on twists while keeping his focus on the flawed, compelling characters. Wolf Hour is a fast-paced, psychologically rich thriller that rewards close attention and has a genuine mind bender of an ending.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nordic noir master Nesbø (Blood Ties) sets his sights on the American Midwest in this exquisitely plotted, darkly funny thriller that tackles gun control, police corruption, and psychological trauma in contemporary Minneapolis. The narrative toggles between two main plotlines. In one, disgraced police detective Bob Oz probes the attempted murder of a crooked gun dealer in 2016, an inquiry that develops into a serial killer investigation as more bodies pile up. In the other, crime novelist Holger Ruch pays a visit to Minneapolis in 2022, hoping to conduct research for his new book about a Midwestern policeman of Norwegian descent. Nesbø constructs poignant parallels between the members of his sprawling cast: for example, Oz's main suspect, Tomás Gomez, is a former hit man grappling with a family tragedy that mirrors the baggage of Mike Lunde, an overworked taxidermist who proves instrumental in providing Oz with clues. Meanwhile, interspersed among the main story threads are passages from the perspective of a killer who's simultaneously deranged and frighteningly logical. As the narratives converge and Nesbø reveals the precise nature of Ruch's connection to the case, readers will have no doubt they're in the hands of a brilliant storyteller. This soars.