Norwegian mystery writer Jo Nesbo's latest novel, The Headhunters, is a fast-paced thriller with enough twists to make your head spin and your hand flip back the pages to find what you missed.
Roger Brown is the king of his heap. A headhunter who grills his corporate clients via FBI interrogation tactics, he always, always places his man. But the yin of his professional success is matched by the yang of his personal insecurity. Brown is a short man who has married above himself, literally. When the financial pressures of his marriage mount, he seeks extralegal funds through art theft, and catapults head on into battle with a hunter far more dangerous than himself.
Although not as widely read, Nesbo's Harry Hole mystery series shares accolades on par with fellow Scandinavian writers Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell. But don't bring the same expectations of moral depth and serious theme to this novel. In Headhunters, the moral compass that guides Hole is absent and there are few similarities between the protagonist of this novel and the crusading Blomqvist/Salander duo or the melancholic Inspector Wallander. Brown has the scruples of Tom Ripley and the ego of Gordon Gekko. If you grow to like him at all, it's solely because the rest of the characters are even more revolting. But this book is purely about survival. With suspense that makes you sweat bullets, it will keep you guessing until the very last page and don't be too surprised if you find yourself rooting for Roger along the way. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher