Blood Ties, the second book in Jo Nesbø’s Os series is published today in the UK, but if readers have yet to catch up with the Opgard brothers there’s still time to read the first book in the series, The Kingdom.

Fans of Nesbø’s Harry Hole won’t find the flawed Oslo detective here, instead, we travel to Os, a fictional remote village in Norway. Older brother Roy is a mechanic who runs the local garage and store, though his managerial skills are somewhat questionable. He’s been stuck at home in the family homestead (The Kingdom of the title) since his parents died in an accident when he was a teenager. His more charismatic brother Curt returns from college and has a successful career in the USA with ambitious plans to save the local economy.

It all sounds like a wholesome family drama, but regular readers of Nesbø will know that there’s likely to be something darker lurking just beneath the surface and they wouldn’t be far wrong.

The brothers’ relationship turns out to be more complex than it first appears, dark family secrets heading back decades bind the two together, but also constantly threaten to tear them apart.

Those secrets are slowly and cleverly unpeeled by Nesbø in a slow-burn carefully constructed plot line, each chapter unravels a bit more of the past that sheds light on the current situation.

Pitted against the brothers is local sheriff Kurt Olsen who has his own theories around the Opgard brothers’ past, but are his own motives as pure as his badge of office would suggest?

Nesbø has always excelled in portraying emotional trauma on the page and The Kingdom is a masterclass in the study of the darker recesses of the human brain. There are enough shocking scenes to keep ‘gore’ fans happy but the true power in The Kingdom is more psychological. Here we get real emotional conflict, familial loyalty tested to the limits, guilt, repressed anger and pathological sociopaths buried beneath the day-to-day smiling faces.

It could easily become depressing but Nesbø weaves in just enough dark, dry humour to balance a darkness to rival the darkest polar night. The ending comes much like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but it’s delivered perfectly. A sequel isn’t obvious from the end of The Kingdom and so it is an added bonus we now get to follow more of the Opgard brothers in Blood Ties.

 The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo is published in Hardback, Paperback and e*book by Harvill Secker

Blood Ties by Jo Nesbø

Blood is thicker than water, they say, and in the case of Jo Nesbø’s Opgard brothers, there’s been plenty of bloodshed to test that claim. Blood Ties, the sequel to Nesbø’s 2020 The Kingdom returns us to the small town of Os where the brothers have created a burgeoning hotel and leisure industry.

As readers of The Kingdom will know all too well, this is one of those books where it pays to have read the preceding book to get a full understanding of the backstory, business practices and family history are not all that they seem.

Ambitious plans for hotel expansions, and the world’s largest wooden rollercoaster, threaten to become unstuck when a new tunnel through the mountains threatens to bypass the small town. Shady deals and boardroom manoeuvres see the Opgard brothers always one step ahead of the game.

While this may seem like Dallas or Dynasty in book form, Nesbø’s work is much deeper and darker; it sees brothers Roy and Carl fight their inner demons, keep their past crimes buried, and keep an outwardly calm business face.

Blood Ties is beautifully constructed, a perfect example of pace and tension from a master storyteller. The Kingdom seemed a self-contained standalone work but Blood Ties as the sequel and companion piece proves to be the unexpected exploration we didn’t know we needed.

Nesbø’s phenomenally successful Harry Hole series has demonstrated that he’s adept at showing the dark side of the human soul, the inner torments and pain that the darkest acts instil in a man. Through the eyes of narrator Roy Opgard, Nesbø creates a man as tortured and torn as Detective Hole. Roy’s dark past and crimes are detailed across two books and yet, while never defending these actions, Nesbø achieves the difficult task of making us care and root for the ‘bad guy’.

Bad though is, of course, subjective and the skill here is placing absolute horror in an entirely human context. These aren’t random acts of violence and, abhorrent as they are, there’s a carefully thought-through context to the crimes that draws the reader in. It provides a real dilemma for the reader; we know the actions are wrong, but we’ve invested so much time in the characters – do we root for them or the authorities?

While much time is centred, rightly, around older brother Roy, Nesbø also uses these expanded pages of storytelling to paint a wide portrait of the Os community. It’s a community that will be recognisable to anyone who has lived in a small town – the friendships, the strains, the rumours, the questioning of whether life is potentially better in the big city.

Blood Ties is, like its predecessor The Kingdom, a dark and, at times, difficult read, Nesbø is not afraid to tackle difficult topics including child, domestic and substance abuse among others. That darkness, though, does provide a painful realism to the piece and a sense of real engagement with the reader.

Nesbø, along with English translator Robert Fergusson, injects just enough dry humour and plot twists to keep the piece from descending into pure darkness, giving a masterclass on how to deliver a plot with the requisite number of twists to keep readers engaged.

Those plot twists and pacing give the piece a sense of increasing claustrophobia and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat to find out the fate of this flawed anti-hero.

While many readers will be eagerly anticipating the next Harry Hole story, in Blood Ties Nesbø demonstrates he’s more than a one franchise writer and in this gripping, compelling latest work one of Norway’s most accomplished writers.

Blood Ties by Jo Nesbø is published by Harvill Sacker out now