Cover image of "Blood Ties," a new Nordic thriller

Carl Opgard is the King of Os, a village of a thousand souls in the Norwegian mountains. He owns the Michelin-starred hotel and spa that dominates the community. And his older brother, Roy, isn’t doing so badly, either. He owns the gas station and convenience store, an auto-repair garage, and other local properties. But what really sets the brothers off from their neighbors is that, between them, they’ve committed seven murders over the course of 18 years. And the local sheriff, Kurt Olson, is obsessed with proving that Roy killed one of them, his father, the previous sheriff. But if that isn’t enough to threaten the Opgard brothers, the government is planning to build a tunnel that will bypass Os and immediately lower the value of all their property. So it goes at the outset in Jo Nesbø’s masterful new Nordic thriller, Blood Ties.

A clever serial killer narrates this tale

Few mystery writers display more insight into the minds of serial killers than Jo Nesbø. Most of his 30 novels involve people who have killed again and again, and it’s no accident that they’ve sold so well. His characters are credible. And in Roy Opgard, who narrates Blood Ties, he’s reached a new height. Roy is brilliant, never without a clever stratagem to wriggle out of a tight spot. In his cat-and-mouse game with the sheriff, it’s never clear who’s the cat, and who the mouse. And, meanwhile, resourceful that he is, Roy’s got a solution for the diversion of the highway. He’s going to bribe the engineers whose report approved the tunnel construction. A few changes in their report will set things straight. Or so it seems.

Blood Ties by Jo Nesbø (2025 423 pages ★★★★★

Photo of a Norwegian mountain village like the setting in this Nordic thriller
A Norwegian mountain village somewhat like Os in Jo Nesbø’s novel. Image: Cameron Hewitt – Rick Steves Europe

Complication piles on complication

To complicate matters further, the relationship between the brothers is tense at best. Roy had carried on an affair with Carl’s wife, Shannon. It lasted until Carl discovered she was pregnant with somebody else’s child, and in a rage he killed her. Roy was forced to help him get rid of the body. Now, years later, Roy has begun an affair with Natalie, a woman half his age whom Roy hired to do marketing for the spa. He’s deeply in love with her. But that relationship isn’t simple, either. Natalie’s father had sexually abused her for years until Roy beat him nearly to death, forcing him to swear off his daughter. Never a dull moment in the lives of the Opgard brothers.

Meanwhile, Roy’s clever scheme to bribe the tunnel’s engineers is turning complicated, too. One of the two partners in the engineering firm has decided belatedly that he won’t settle for the generous payment Roy offered. He’s threatened to hold a press conference to expose the bribery. And if he does the sheriff will have yet another opening to investigate the Opgard brothers. Will this mean Roy has to commit yet another murder?

About the author

Photo of Jo Nesbo, author of this new Nordic thriller
Jo Nesbo. Image: IMDb

Wikipedia introduces Jo Nesbø as follows: “Jon ‘Jo’ Nesbø (born 29 March 1960) is a Norwegian novelist, musician, and former stockbroker, football reporter and player. His books had sold over 50 million copies worldwide by 2021, making him the most successful Norwegian author to date.” He is the author of 30 novels as of 2025, including 13 in his bestselling Harry Hole series.

Amazon reveals other interesting details: “Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbø played football for Norway’s premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years military service he attended business school and formed the band Di derre (‘Them There’). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel, The Bat.”

You’ll find my reviews of many more of the books in this series at The outstanding Harry Hole thrillers from Jo Nesbo.

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