The Son

A novel

By: Jo Nesbo

Narrated by: Gildart Jackson

The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption.

Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit—or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes.

Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo’s crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he’s happy to play the criminal and the prison’s in-house savior.

But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison—and from the person he’d let himself become—and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first—the criminals or the cops?

Much more than I expected!

I am a Harry Hole fan, so I expected a good story. This was so much more.

Built on the same format--police, criminals, an evil plot--but unexpected twists and turns with every page. Then the story became more about the people than the plot. Nesbo doesn't write 3-dimensional characters; he takes them even further.

You will never guess the ending!

I'm glad I did not give up on Jo Nesbo!

Jo Nesbo is best known for his Harry Hole police thrillers. Hole is a cop in Norway who has a great mind for solving crimes. He also has an almost debilitating addiction to alcohol and lots of family issues. In my opinion Nesbo's ceaseless discussion of Hole's issues detracted from the excellent police thrillers.

The Son is a stand alone novel; ie., not part of the Harry Hole series. I do not want to get into the plot because it is inconsiderate of others, so I'll just say that Jo Nesbo has finally written a novel that I can recommend without reservation.

Narration is...adequate.

Nesbo Does It Again

I was sure I was going to miss Harry Hole as the main character, but Nesbo did a wonderful job of providing a fascinating story. There wasn't a single moment during this 17 hour audio book that I thought the story was stuck or too long. This was a very smart story with Nesbo's usual twists and turns at the end. It is on my list to revisit again when I am craving the excellent story-telling of Jo Nesbo. The narrator kept the story moving at the right speed and tone. I think Jackson did a fantastic narration.

My only warning is that you get lots of scary moments and cringe-worthy deaths, but that is what you get with every Nesbo story.

Perfect! I think I ejoy Nesbo's "one offs" better

his Harry Hole series. Nesbo is a tough edgey writer but he is also a truly lyrical romantic. The combination makes excellent novels that can be thoroughly enjoyred by either gender.

Amazing 👏

Amazing story. Amazing narrator. wish I could be a first time listener all over again lol