Jo Nesbø is one of the most prolific Norwegian crime authors with his long running Harry Hole series and more recently a crime filled duology set in rural Norway (The Kingdom and Blood Ties). Wolf Hour is a stand alone thriller set in America, or more precisely Minneapolis. While the setting has changed, this thriller retains many of the Nesbø trademarks.
The framing of Wolf Hour is a character called Holger Rudi who travels from Norway to America in 2022 to writs a true crime novel about his cousin. The events that he wants to write about took place in 2016 and the reader is led to understand that the bulk of the book set in 2016 is Rudi’s reimagining of the events. It is unclear, even at the end, why Nesbø set the book up in this way. He definitely wants to reference the death of George Floyd (which happened after the events of the central narrative) even though the central theme in this book is not police racism but rather the issue of gun control. This set up does add yet another level of misdirection (there is plenty of misdirection in this book resulting in some killer twists) but by the end, the framing device adds very little to the story.
The story set in 2016 revolves around a serial killer and a disgraced and broken detective called Bob Oz (a Norwegian name pronounced Aa-ss). Nesbø fans will recognise the archetype of Oz: a fairly good detective who has been broken by a tragedy (which is eventually revealed) and as a result his career is on the skids. But Oz desperately wants to solve this particular case for his own sense of self-respect, and will keep working on it even when he is taken off it and then suspended from duty. That case starts with the shooting of a gun dealer by a sniper with an illegal weapon. That sniper seems to be on a mission of revenge but also leaves enough clues to highlight the problem with America’s lax gun control laws just as a large NRA conference is taking place in the city.
Nesbø knows how to craft a great thriller, changing point of view when he needs to away from Bob to a corrupt colleague and his very competent partner. Nesbø also has some sections from the point of view of the killer, a technique that he pulls off much more effectively than most crime writers. Nesbø has great control of the pacing of this narrative as the police constantly come close to catching the killer only to have him elude them. This is all part of the game that Nesbø is playing with his readers. Like a great magician, he (and his killer) gets them to look one way while the sleight of hand is happening somewhere else. There is only one element of this game which, on reflection, feels a little forced.
Bob Oz provides the heart of this book. When it opens he is at a low and things do not get much better for him in the short term. But in the course of the investigation he learns about himself and his situation and begins to reconcile with his life. Through Oz, Nesbø is able to work on a number of levels – the pure investigative process but also what Oz learns about himself and his life leads him to better understand what motivates his quarry.
Wolf Hour is a book that is angry with gun control laws in America and while it will probably not change anyone’s mind makes a strong case for them to be strengthened. But it is carried through the poignant personal journey of its protagonist, Bob Oz, as he deals with this issue and its impact on his life. Nesbø effectively combines these elements with his own Scandinavian crime sensibilities to delivers a pacey, twisty thriller with plenty to say.
Wolf Hour by Jo Nesbø
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