Creating a shallow and unlikeable protagonist and then setting him up as your hero makes for a tough challenge, even as he's being cuckolded and targeted for murder, and I don't think Nesbo ever quite gets there. I love the Hole books and all their byzantine plot threads, but this is the first Nesbo where I wondered if the translation was creating some static. A lot of the blurbs talk about this being some sort of black comedy and I didn't really get vibe either.

After a wandering start where we come to loathe Roger Brown, the plot does get kicking in the second half with some nice set pieces (and one exceedingly gross and graphic one) and well placed plot twists. Still, even the reveals of those twists are awkward and had me reading twice to see if I missed something (only to have it explained 10 pages later on).

All in all, not my favorite Nesbo. It works in spots, but not as a whole. If you've never tried Nesbo, I'd suggest one of the series books first.