The Snowman

On a cold Norwegian night, a young boy named Jonas wakes to find his mother missing from their home. Outside, in Jonas’s yard, stands a solitary snowman wearing his mother’s favorite scarf. Brought in to investigate the disappearance is frayed-around-the-edges police detective Harry Hole, who soon learns he’s dealing with a serial killer calling himself the Snowman. As Hole delves into the case, he begins to suspect the Snowman has been murdering women for years. And to make matters worse the killer has chosen Hole as his opponent in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with twists and turns designed to drive the detective insane. Robin Sachs’s cool, matter-of-fact narration fits the somber tone of Nesbø’s thriller, his near whisper of a voice pulling the listener into the story as Hole desperately follows every lead in his efforts to stop the Snowman from killing again. Although Sachs skillfully brings all the book’s characters to life, his portrayal of Hole shines the brightest: his depiction of Nesbø’s nonconformist, borderline alcoholic, world-weary detective will leave listeners hungry for the next audiobook in the series. A Knopf hardcover. (May)