Blood on Snow

'Tis the season to be reading! Today is the first day of Advent, so Christmas is getting closer, so I am giving you some reading suggestion for Yuletide. As a crime fiction aficionado, I thought I started the season with a crime novel (or novella). Nothing is more fitting for Christmas than blood of snow. And tonight's suggestion is aptly titled... Blood on Snow. Written by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo. Strangely enough, it is my very first venture in Scandinavian crime fiction. I often go Scandinavian for my Christmas read, but so far it has been Norse sagas. Come to think of it, this book has a lot in common with these sagas of old: it is short yet very dense, has larger than life characters, a (anti)hero living a life of never ending violence, betrayals, double crossings, tragic ironies and enough people killed to make Valhalla overcrowded. The story? Professional hitman with a hidden soft side Olav is given a contract on his boss' wife... By his boss. And through his surveillance before the hit, Olav falls in love with his target, or at least becomes infatuated with her. And that is just the start of his troubles. Set in the days leading to Christmas, Blood on Snow is maybe the Noir Christmas book to read.