by Jo Nesbo
Harvill Secker
5 stars
Guy Haydon
The brutally battered looks of self-destructive detective Harry Hole - complete with a bullet-wound scar to his head - show that his creator, Norwegian novelist Jo Nesbo, could have easily killed him off many times in the course of the 10 violent, bestselling thrillers in which he has appeared. But after being translated into 40 languages and sales of more than 20 million books around the world, he has always resisted.
Nesbo took a brief hiatus from the Hole books in 2008, to publish a well-received standalone chase thriller Headhunters, which became a successful 2011 Norwegian film. Now he is taking a longer break and has no plans for further Hole books. Instead, here's the terrific, blood-soaked, multi-stranded revenge thriller The Son, which more than fills the hole left by Hole.
Sonny Lofthus, a promising schoolboy wrestler before becoming addicted to drugs, has been in jail in Oslo for more than a decade since admitting to the murders of two people when he was 18. The model prisoner spends his days - in between regular fixes of heroin - as a confidant to inmates, listening to their confessions and absolving them of their sins.
He is about to admit to a third murder, in return for a fresh supply of drugs, when a prisoner asks him for forgiveness - only for the confession to involve details about Lofthus' disgraced father.
Instantly enraged, he hatches a plan to escape and wreak revenge on Oslo's drug dealers and lowlifes he believes have wronged him. Top of his hit-list is the city's sadistic organised-crime kingpin.