The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Hostess:  Michelle Smith
Thursday June 13, 2013

We met a week later than originally scheduled due to so many people unable to attend that date. It still turned out that only five of us were able to make this night.  

Here are Pam, Cheryl, Michelle, Myra, and Janna ready for a cozy night. 

And....a truly cozy night it turned out to be!  Just as we sat down in the den, Cheryl's brand new very smart phone alerted us with a tornado siren so we turned on the TV only to hear Fox weatherman Ken Cook advising people "now is the time to take shelter."   So, we did.  Here we are hunkered down in the wine closet on top of the doggie crates! The howling wind and the pounding rain gave us a wild and mysterious setting in which  to review our  murder/mystery selection.  

It really was a tornado!

After things quieted down weather-wise, we  actually did review the book.  The author's writing style reminded us of the author Stieg Larsson (Dragon Tattoo series).   We thought Harry Hole (we were curious where/why the author came up with this particular name, and if it's possibly pronounced differently in Norway) was reminiscent of Mikael Blomkvist, the detective in these books.    Cheryl was the only one who figured out who the killer was, early in the book, based on the description of his "child-like eyes," but she changed her mind later and thought it could be Katrine or the mold-exterminator (because if not him, what was the possible purpose of having him as part of the story?)

We rated the book a 3.75:  two gave it three-stars ("in a book club, so had to read it"), and three gave four-stars ("wouldn't have chosen it, but glad I read it.")   Observations included:  interesting and suspenseful story....great transitions between chapters....lots of details and names that were hard to pronounce and remember....and too many rabbit trails that never connected.

No great quote about the actual book (Amy wasn't there) but there was a quote of the night (made several times by Janna standing in front of the door/window)... 

"It's over."  Wait, the sky is yellow!"