Killing Moon by Jo Nesbø ***

Reading dates 18 February – 14 March 2024

I have been reading, as promised to myself, very worthy literature until the countdown for my trip to Tenerife for my Purple Valley yoga retreat came into single figure sleeps. A fortuitous trip to the newsagent made me stand in front of the bestsellers display and I noticed Jo Nesbø had published, relatively recently, a new book in the Harry Hole series. Like with Jack Reacher, I am a fan.

Killing Moon is good crime fiction, dubious literature. What is particularly pleasing about it is Ness’s skill at making me, the reader, see what he wants me to see and not the whole picture. Sorry to be cagey but the solution to who kills my the moon is involved in this. Our partiality, in general, is amazing.

The story takes place, as with most of these books, in Oslo but there was a very promising start in LA with what I think is one of the most accurate descriptions of the city I have heard:

You land at LAX, the sun is shining and you’re picked up by a limousine which drives you to a place where you lie down by a swimming pool, get a cocktail, fall asleep and wake up to discover that twenty years of your life have gone by.

In the process of reading, I also learned the word nystagmus (a rhythmical, repetitive and involuntary movement of the eyes. It is usually from side to side, but sometimes up and down or in a circular motion. Both eyes can move together or independently of each other. A person with nystagmus has no control over this movement of the eyes). Unrelated to the book, I also encountered the word limerence for the first time (an unhealthy love at first sight attachment) which makes this week particularly good for vocabulary.