Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo

Jo Nesbo is the author of the bestselling Scandinavian Harry Hole detective series. His stand-alone novel Blood On Snow is an excellent crime novel, but I think it incorrect to call Midnight Sun (also known as Blood On Snow 2) a sequel, as it only retains a few characters in a new story of a hitman escaping to Northern Norway.

Jon escapes Oslo to the northern Finnmark plateau, and the desolate town of Kasund, with its prominent church and basic village. The end of the line; a perfect place to hide. An addict selling drugs to support his habit, he is small fry compared to the drug kingpin they call the Fisherman. When one of his collectors needs replacing, the Fisherman traps Jon into the job, and Jon can use the money. The child he had with another addict has developed leukemia, and the treatment is costly. He is good at collecting money, but when it comes to being a 'hitman', he literally cannot pull the trigger. Even when his life depends on it—for the Fisherman finds out he let a debtor go free, after splitting owed money and drugs. Jon claimed he dumped the body, but the man was found bragging about it, and now the target is on Jon's back.

In this wilderness where the sun never sets, the indigenous Sami people coexist with an austere religious sect. Jon meets young Knut and his mother Lea, who helps him hide in an abandoned cabin, telling others he is a hunter. Religion stops her from helping too much; people will talk, especially now that her abusive husband has gone missing. Nevertheless, Jon forms a bond with her son, and when the Fisherman's men inevitably track him, the friends he has met will be ready to help.

For the Fisherman never stops until he finds what he is looking for.

For a crime novel, this is very introspective, much like the previous (and superior) Blood On Snow. Jon goes to extraordinary lengths to evade the Fisherman's men - near the end almost unbelievably so - but this is more of a relationship novel. Lea is the beautiful mother who is treated by men as property, yet strong enough to stand for herself. Their growing friendship, and people's capacity for goodness, is the backbone of this story. An enjoyable novel, but a letdown after Blood On Snow.

An Italian production filmed this in English as Hanging Sun in 2022.

2015 / Tradeback / 224 pages

My other Jo Nesbo review:

Blood On Snow