The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo

The Kingdom is the latest novel by the fantastic Jo Nesbo. Jo Nesbo is one of my favourite authors. In fact, I think I’ve read more of his novels than pretty much any other author. The Kingdom is one of his standalone novels, rather than one from the Harry Hole series. For me, it is by far the best of the standalone novels.

The Kingdom tells the story of brothers Roy (who narrates the story) and Carl. Roy lives alone on a remote Norwegian mountain top, while Carl travels the world in search of a better life. Some years later, Carl returns with his new wife, Shannon, and big ideas of building a spa hotel on their family’s land.

While Carl has big dreams, Roy is a loner and a bit of a mystery to the people of the village. He is happy that they don’t know much about him, because he and Carl have secrets they want to keep buried. Having never let outsiders in before, they choose to tell Shannon everything. But can she really be trusted with their secrets?

Roy was left to care for his brother when they were teenagers, after their parents died suddenly. All Roy has ever cared about is his brother and all he has ever wanted to do is look after him, but their secrets are threatening to be discovered. How long can Roy keep them buried?

This is probably the most atmospheric of Jo Nesbo’s stories. The isolation of the brothers’ home reminds me of a Jane Harper novel or Fredrik Backman’s Beartown. Told mainly in the present tense, it also has long flashbacks to the brothers’ childhood, teenage years and early adulthood.

I absolutely love Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole novels and I loved The Kingdom just as much. While Harry Hole is a big and rather obvious character, Roy is much more subtle. And while the Harry Hole stories are brutal, the brutality of The Kingdom is much more low key, but it is definitely still there.

Between the setting and the characters, this is Jo Nesbo at his Nordic noir best.