If Blood Ties was written as a AITA Reddit post, I’d tell Roy Opgard that yeah, he’s TA, but he’s certainly not the biggest one. 

I love Nordic Noir (or Scandinavian Noir, if you prefer). It’s one of my favorite thriller subgenres. It trades in metaphor, filler material, and descriptive narrative for moral complexity, tight and efficient writing, and a pacing that is melancholic but implacable in its coming. I love how bleak these books are and how the penetrating cold reveals the social ills that plague a population that’s usually portrayed to be so happy with their lives. 

Blood Ties is technically the sequel to Nesbo’s book The Kingdom (which is available in paperback and ebook with the same translator), but I didn’t have to read it to understand this book at all. Blood Ties stands all on its own as a supremely engaging, compulsively readable thriller about one brother who’s been trying to make up for perceived failings from when he was young and another brother who just can’t stop taking. The characters in this book were complex and sad while also all being so pivotal to the plot. Not a single one was wasted. The plot had great twists and turns, but none that didn’t make sense and all were impeccably styled. 

Roy Opgard was a fantastic protagonist, morose and rather apathetic about whether life is worth keeping up with. Doesn’t like killing, but he’s good at it. Both hates and loves his little brother. Does what he thinks is right, even if it means he might have to give up what he was working towards. Roy learns to invest in his life, and that makes the last third of the book a shaking rope bridge of suspense.

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Crime Thriller/Murder Thriller/Suspense Thriller/Thriller