I generally enjoy reading Nesbø's dark Norwegian thrillers. He does an excellent job of character and scene creation. He also has quite the knack for keeping the reader guessing; once you think you know what's going to happen, he throws in a wild curveball and the entire plot of the story goes off the rails.

Unfortunately, "The Kingdom" did not live up to these standards. The story started off well, albeit a bit disturbing. Disturbing is sort of Nesbø's thing, however, so that in and of itself wasn't at issue. I also did not have an issue with the character development. The entire story is told from the point of view of one of the brothers, Roy, so sometimes it would feel like the other characters were a bit weak, but that's mostly due to the fact that none of the storyline was told from anyone else's perspective.

Here is the problem - predictability. I have read all of Nesbø's books and predictability is not a word that I would have ever associated with him. Whenever I read one of his books I know that it's time to strap in and get ready for a wild ride with loads of twists and turns. "The Kingdom" was more of a Sunday meander through the hills. A few bends in the road, but no serious hairpins.

Don't get me wrong, though. This is still a good stand alone book, especially if you are new to Jo Nesbø, so I would still give it my recommendation.