Sometimes even killers have their honor to defend

Brothers Roy and Carl Opgard were born and raised in the small Norwegian town of Os, and it is there that they have created a business empire.  They have not hewn strictly to the straight and narrow in their climb to success...in fact, more than a few murders have been committed along the way. So when they are confronted by impediments to expansion they will take whatever steps they deem necessary to remove those obstacles,.bribes, threats, and yes, murder.  The brothers enjoy a unique relationship with one another, one of strong family loyalty that was drilled into them by their domineering father but also of jealousy.  Carl, the younger brother, is generally perceived to be the smarter, more charismatic of the pair, but it is Roy who has been Carl's protector since they were boys.  It would be unwise for anyone, most especially Carl, to underestimate Roy's own skills and dreams, as the two chart their course to ensure that Os, and with it the Opgard family fortunes, will reach new heights.
When a book begins with its narrator explaining how and why they became a stone cold killer, albeit one with a sense of morality that bubbles up from time to time, the reader can expect that they are in for quite a ride. Roy is not someone whose deeds are particularly admirable, but as the reader learns about what he has endured and overcome and the unkind twists of fate that have formed him it is hard not to sympathize with him to a degree.  Carl, by comparison, is an equally complex but far more ambitious (and less moral) sort.  The others who populate the town of Os are equally well-drawn, with their own code of ethics and motivations, their own secrets to hide and plans to execute.  This is the second in author Jo Nesbø's series based in the fictional town of Os (the first was The Kingdom); it can be read as a standalone, as much of what happened in the first book is sketched out in the beginning of Blood Ties.  That may have contributed to my finding the beginning of the book a bit slow and bogged down as the backstory is rolled out; those who have read The Kingdom and have no need of explanations may feel the same.  The suspense builds throughout, however, and with Nesbø's characteristic dark humor the reader comes to understand the hidden motives and underlying machinations at play between the two brothers, their business rivals and the women they pursue.  All disasters, muses Roy towards the end of the book, should have a prelude...but when they don't it is be up to the nature of the individual as to how they will fare.  A darkly comic thriller which explores the psychological nature of family loyalties, love and guilt, Blood Ties is a well-crafted and entertaining story written by one of the masters of Nordic Noir, which readers of authors like Jussi Adler-Olsen, Henning Mankell and Juan Gómez-Jurado should scoop up and add to their TBR list.  Many thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf/Borzoi Books for allowing me access to this latest entry by this consistently excellent author.