Blood Ties (Jo Nesbo) – book review

Jo Nesbo’s 2020 book The Kingdom was a violent story centred around anti-hero Roy Opgard and the criminal machinations of Roy and his brother Carl in the small Norwegian town of Os. That book was marketed as a stand-alone crime thriller. And to some extent the story was wrapped up, tragically as expected, by the end. Knowing it was a standalone meant that readers would just have to accept that a number of dangling plot threads would remain. But now Roy and his crazy, ambitious brother Carl are back, eight years later in Blood Ties and some of those dangling threads are coming back to haunt them.

When Blood Ties opens, Carl runs Os Spa, the luxury hotel on the hill, and is now known locally as the ‘King of Os’ and Roy is doing what he does best, bribing a couple of engineers to change a geological report so that the new highway will have to continue to pass through the village. This is particularly necessary as Roy has plans to build an amusement park anchored by the world’s biggest rollercoaster. But the hotel is in trouble, for reasons beyond the fear that the town will be bypassed, and Carl is keen to rope Roy into helping him save it. At the same time, Kurt, the local sheriff has new evidence that points to the brothers being responsible for his father’s murder as well as some other deaths close to their family property.

Roy Opgard is a classic criminal anti-hero. It is hard to agree with what he is doing, or find it moral supportable. But Roy is nothing if not honest with the reader and Nesbo makes him somewhat relatable so that readers are likely to be rooting for him, particularly when he gets into a relationship with the much younger but equally damaged Natalie. Roy may be violent but he is also loyal and loving. The relationship between Roy and Carl was always an unhealthy one but one in which they stuck by each other, in Blood Ties the gloves come off. And again, it is easy to take Roy’s perspective when pitted against the nihilism and ego of his brother. Readers may not like Roy or agree with his choices but Nebo makes sure they understand him and the forces that shaped him.

There are no crimes to be solved in Blood Ties, readers are taken through how every crime is committed and then covered up. The cleverness here is the way in which Roy both deals with the crimes and then corrupts people and creates contingencies which come into play when matters do not quite pan out as he expected. And Nesbo never lets up the pressure on Roy with numerous past and present wrong deeds emerging at different inconvenient times

For those who like their crime stories on the dark side, Blood Ties is a great follow up to The Kingdom. Blood Ties is another descent into a rural community desperate to stay relevant and vital, riven with secrets and driven by petty corruption. In that respect Roy Opgard is the perfect guide to this world, always on the make, always trying to think a few steps ahead of those who are out to get him. It turns out that he was a character and a place that was well worth revisiting.

Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed

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