This is a non-Harry Hole novel, but still set in Norway. As usual the police, in the form of Inspector Simon Kefas and his new young extremely bright female partner, Kari Adel, are main protagonists. However, just as prominent is Sonny.
People called the boy Sonny and said that he had killed two people as a teenager, that his father had been a corrupt police officer and that Sonny had healing hands.
So, it was not surprising that internees in the Staten Maximum Security Prison would seek him out in moments of contrition and share their deepest confessions with him. Nobody has ever been betrayed by Sonny’s knowledge of their soul’s truth. And Sonny is on heroin so who can tell what he remembers or when he will overdose?
Then Raven, with only a few days to go before his release, and an intention to go straight, comes to unburden his soul. Sonny discovers that there is something more to his disgraced father than he ever knew. This morsel of insight casts doubt on the shame that has induced his self-punishment, and his acceptance of the burden of guilt for other crimes.
He breaks out of prison and begins the agonising stagger up the path to drug-use recovery, and to follow the scent of the truth amidst the stench of corruption.
And Kefas, his late father’s best friend, is one of the bloodhounds on his trail.
The thriller is all Jo Nesbø – interwoven skeins of evil and good and fallible humanity, and restitution. The writing is smooth and deep and colourful, the journey over the rapids exciting and the twist at the end is more like a whirlpool!
I thoroughly enjoyed The Son.
