It’s fascinating to discover, from the incident details, what it is like to live for much of the time in a world under snow…. Nesbo writes beautifully
Jessica Mann, Literary Review

It’s fascinating to discover, from the incident details, what it is like to live for much of the time in a world under snow…. Nesbo writes beautifully
Jessica Mann, Literary Review

Nesbo ratchets up the tension with a relentless urgency
Marie Claire

Nesbo ratchets up the tension with a relentless urgency
Marie Claire

Powerful writing, a plot of chilling, gripping grimness, and the hero Oslo cop Harry Hole descending even farther into his emotional maelstrom.
Marcel Berlins, The Times

Powerful writing, a plot of chilling, gripping grimness, and the hero Oslo cop Harry Hole descending even farther into his emotional maelstrom.
Marcel Berlins, The Times

Nesbo’s novels keep going when you think there can’t be any more twists to follow. Scenes switch from the avalanche-threatened ravines and mountain cabins of back-country Norway, close to oil-rich Stavanger and metropolitan Oslo, to an active volcano in Africa
Times Literary Supplement

Nesbo’s novels keep going when you think there can’t be any more twists to follow. Scenes switch from the avalanche-threatened ravines and mountain cabins of back-country Norway, close to oil-rich Stavanger and metropolitan Oslo, to an active volcano in Africa
Times Literary Supplement

There are passages [which are] so anatomically gruesome... that they can only be properly read through the gaps between protecting fingers
Prospect

There are passages [which are] so anatomically gruesome... that they can only be properly read through the gaps between protecting fingers
Prospect

The plot of The Leopard is intriguing, and Nesbo’s writing is as taut as ever.
Joan Smith, Sunday Times

The plot of The Leopard is intriguing, and Nesbo’s writing is as taut as ever.
Joan Smith, Sunday Times

Nesbo deploys all the key ingredients of a cracking good thriller with expertise and verve. The ticking clock, the tension expertly ratcheted ever upwards, the changing scenery, the constantly shifting goalposts and the effortless, triumphant outpacing of the reader's ability to guess what's going to happen will keep you gripped to the last page.
Laura Wilson, Guardian

Nesbo deploys all the key ingredients of a cracking good thriller with expertise and verve. The ticking clock, the tension expertly ratcheted ever upwards, the changing scenery, the constantly shifting goalposts and the effortless, triumphant outpacing of the reader's ability to guess what's going to happen will keep you gripped to the last page.
Laura Wilson, Guardian

A cracking good thriller
Guardian

A cracking good thriller
Guardian

Original Norwegian noir…absorbing
Tom Huddleston, Time Out

Original Norwegian noir…absorbing
Tom Huddleston, Time Out

The Leopard ... looks set to follow the success of last year's The Snowman, still on paperback bestseller lists...What Nesbo excels at is creating an atmosphere of pure, choking terror.
Siobhan Murphy, Metro

The Leopard ... looks set to follow the success of last year's The Snowman, still on paperback bestseller lists...What Nesbo excels at is creating an atmosphere of pure, choking terror.
Siobhan Murphy, Metro

For those who have devoured Nesbo's previous five books, mostly set in Oslo and containing some of the most inventive killers and the most cunning cops, Nesbo is not the next Stieg Larsson. There is no comparison between the two Scandinavian crime writers: Nesbo is infinitely better...[The Leopard]comes just in time for fans who, since The Snowman, have been dying for more murder and mayhem in the frozen north
Orna Mulcahy, Irish Times

For those who have devoured Nesbo's previous five books, mostly set in Oslo and containing some of the most inventive killers and the most cunning cops, Nesbo is not the next Stieg Larsson. There is no comparison between the two Scandinavian crime writers: Nesbo is infinitely better...[The Leopard]comes just in time for fans who, since The Snowman, have been dying for more murder and mayhem in the frozen north
Orna Mulcahy, Irish Times

Will keep you guessing until last page.
Best

Will keep you guessing until last page.
Best

The Leopard once again proves his undoubted talents for crime fiction with a Scandinavian setting
Press Association

The Leopard once again proves his undoubted talents for crime fiction with a Scandinavian setting
Press Association

Original Norwegian noir…absorbing.
Tom Huddleston, Time Out

Original Norwegian noir…absorbing.
Tom Huddleston, Time Out

Outstanding ... Probably the best big crime novel you could lay your hands on this year
Jeff Park, Front Row (radio)

Outstanding ... Probably the best big crime novel you could lay your hands on this year
Jeff Park, Front Row (radio)

If you like detective fiction, you'll love this
Irish Independent

If you like detective fiction, you'll love this
Irish Independent

So is THE LEOPARD as good as THE SNOWMAN? In my opinion it's better. More layered with more suspicious characters, red-herrings and locations than ever before
Eurocrime blog

So is THE LEOPARD as good as THE SNOWMAN? In my opinion it's better. More layered with more suspicious characters, red-herrings and locations than ever before
Eurocrime blog

Nesbo is truly one of his capital’s great literary celebrants... The Leopard’s unflagging narrative tension, breathtaking surprises and many confrontations with half-suspected treachery are superb.
Paul Binding, Independent

Nesbo is truly one of his capital’s great literary celebrants... The Leopard’s unflagging narrative tension, breathtaking surprises and many confrontations with half-suspected treachery are superb.
Paul Binding, Independent

Following the success of The Snowman, Jo Nesbo is emerging as the writer most likely to replace Stieg Larsson...However, Nesbo is by far the better plotter... Thoroughly compelling.
John Williams, Mail on Sunday

Following the success of The Snowman, Jo Nesbo is emerging as the writer most likely to replace Stieg Larsson...However, Nesbo is by far the better plotter... Thoroughly compelling.
John Williams, Mail on Sunday

Nesbo is such a terrific action writer
Daily Telegraph

Nesbo is such a terrific action writer
Daily Telegraph

Jo Nesbo is the latest buzz word in crime writing
Stylist

Jo Nesbo is the latest buzz word in crime writing
Stylist

Nesbo's stock has been steadily rising, and [The Leopard] is destined to take him to the top of the champions league. Comparisons with Stieg Larsson have been made, but Nesbo's plots move quickly, carry more punch, and really do keep you guessing right to the very end.
Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror

Nesbo's stock has been steadily rising, and [The Leopard] is destined to take him to the top of the champions league. Comparisons with Stieg Larsson have been made, but Nesbo's plots move quickly, carry more punch, and really do keep you guessing right to the very end.
Henry Sutton, Daily Mirror

Nesbo... was published long before the late Mr Larsson and is a much better writer.
Julia Handford, Sunday Telegraph

A meaty and ambitious novel that fully justifies the cover’s claim that Nesbo is the most credible contender to inherit the mantle of ‘the next Stieg Larsson
Irish Independent

A meaty and ambitious novel that fully justifies the cover’s claim that Nesbo is the most credible contender to inherit the mantle of ‘the next Stieg Larsson
Irish Independent

A nice fat page-turning thriller
Nicholas Bagnall, Telegraph

A nice fat page-turning thriller
Nicholas Bagnall, Telegraph

Chilling and tense...the plot moves at a cracking pace... Another triumph for Inspector Norse
Simon Copeland, The Sun

[The Leopard] is Nesbo's surest, most skilfully assured book to date...The pace barrels along in a breathtaking fashion to the very conclusion and...it's always compelling.
David Connett, Sunday Express

Gruesome and compelling'
Evening Standard

Gruesome and compelling'
Evening Standard

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week...The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues...Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail – as you might expect from an ex – freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described'
Barry Forshaw, Independent

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week...The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues...Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail – as you might expect from an ex – freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described'
Barry Forshaw, Independent

Nesbo is such a terrific action writer
Daily Telegraph

Fast-paced, witty and compassionate, [Nesbo] offers highly contemporary entertainment, combining the intellectual challenge of police procedure novels with the explosive excitement of the modern day international thriller.
The Herald (Glasgow)

Nesbo has a skill for dispatching his victims with increasing inventiveness, and he barely lets you draw breath before delivering a virtuoso torture and death scene in the opening chapter'
Shortlist

Nesbo has a skill for dispatching his victims with increasing inventiveness, and he barely lets you draw breath before delivering a virtuoso torture and death scene in the opening chapter'
Shortlist

The plot is intriguing, and Nesbo's writing is as taught as ever...”
Sunday Times

The plot is intriguing, and Nesbo's writing is as taught as ever...”
Sunday Times

A nice fat page-turning thriller
Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph

gruesome and compelling'
The Scotsman

gruesome and compelling'
The Scotsman

Laura Skerritt 17 March 2011

Holy Moly! Another corker from Jo Nesbo! What I love most of all about these books is that I cannot put them down! I get completely and utterly addicted to them!

Harry Hole returns again to help solve a string of murders, well... supposedly that's not the reason he returned...his father Olav is sick in hospital. But from reading The Snowman, it becomes apparent that as much as he tries to fight it, he cannot leave his crime-solving days behind...he HAS to stop the bad guys! That is the brilliance of Hole's character, yes he's the typical off-the-wall detective but he's way more complicated and that's why we come back and why HE comes back time and time again, risking life and limb to stop deadly, psychotic serial killers from striking again.

The Leopard is an exciting, breathtaking, thrill ride of a novel and as well as keeping with The Snowman's style, Nesbo even brings 'The Snowman' into this one! Which, if you've read that book...you will get goosebumps on the back of your neck and actually become a little frightened. I think it was a brilliant idea to do that because it reinstated the idea that, just because you've caught the bad guys...doesn't mean they disappear...they continue to have the same thoughts, ideas, emotions that you were aware of before and it brings the initial fear right back to you. But don't worry, 'The Snowman' is still incapacitated...increasingly so, it seems.

I think it's also interesting that we share a lot of the same fears and feelings as Harry. As soon as Kaja (the attractive female officer who drags him back from Hong Kong...) appears on the scene, we immediately think 'Oh god, she's going to be in danger' and it is apparent that Harry feels the same way, keeping her at a distance for a while...but from our knowledge of Harry's personality, we know that if he does allow himself to get close to her, he will protect her if it is the last thing he does.

I love Nesbo's writing! We empathise, sympathise, share the same fear and the same emotions...albeit from the comfort of the tube/sofa/bed. I even felt a bit claustrophobic after the avalanche traps Harry and Kaja up in the mountains! This really is a credit to Nesbo's style. His descriptions are tangible, the narratives are enthralling and the characters are really believable!

I'm desperate to get my hands on some of the earlier 'Harry Hole' books and try to see what has made him into the character he is in The Leopard. I know some people don't approve of reading the books in the "wrong" order but I don't think it matters...I love postmodern/disjointed, mixed-up narratives as it is!

If you haven't read The Snowman yet - shame on you! Go and read it now! Then read The Leopard maybe not straight away...you'll be terrified! You won't sleep! Fortunately, unlike me...you won't have to read The Snowman when there are ACTUAL snowmen in your street and well, everywhere!

But I urge you to give Jo Nesbo a try...you won't regret it!