Nesbo in New Zealand: crime writing's rising Norwegian star heading our way in 2012

Last year there were a few rumours that Norway's Jo Nesbø, the crime writer who seems to be most picking up the Scandinavian crime writing baton and really running with it, was heading to Australia and New Zealand for the Christchurch Writers' Festival and other events. Unfortunately this did not happen - however in some excellent news, Nesbø's publisher has announced that he will "more than likely" be touring in a few months time, in early 2012. Nesbø's popularity and profile continues to grow and grow, so it would be terrific for keen crime readers to see him down this way.

Here's the official press release:

Detective Harry Hole fans will be delighted to hear his creator, Jo Nesbø, (photo above - Hakon Eikesdal), will more than likely be touring to New Zealand in late February 2012.


Nesbø will visit Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to do events and store-signings in each centre. A keen mountaineer, he’s sure to also squeeze in some serious climbing while he’s here.

The Norwegian economist, journalist, chart-topping pop musician and now hugely successful and critically acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø will be promoting ‘Phantom’ ― the follow-up to ‘The Leopard’, his heart-stopping thriller in which Harry Hole reluctantly returns to Oslo and becomes embroiled in a particularly disturbing case involving another serial killer who will stop at nothing to escape justice.

Nesbø’s new, stand-alone thriller about an art theft which goes wrong, ‘Headhunters’, is being published here on 19 August. All proceeds from this book, in all editions and formats including the movie adaptation, go directly to the ‘Harry Hole Foundation’: a charity set up to reduce illiteracy among children in the Third World.

HEADHUNTERS the movie is a top-notch crime thriller with bright, brilliant camera work and a twist-a-minute plot. HEADHUNTERS will be released in February 2012.

Nesbø and his complex Harry Hole (pronounced Hurler) detective hero are pretty much household names for crime fiction buffs.

It was on a long-haul fight to Sydney taking a break from his job as a stockbroker that Jo Nesbø famously penned the start of his first Harry Hole novel.

Harry Hole was an instant hit with Norwegians, with the first book in the series winning the ‘Glass Key Award’ for best Nordic crime novel ― an accolade shared with Peter Høeg, Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson. Nesbø has won numerous other awards across Europe, and his books have been shortlisted for the CWA and for the prestigious Edgar Awards. Six chilling international bestsellers later, totalling an estimated 3.5 million copies worldwide, the series is now published in 40 countries.

‘The Snowman’ has been optioned by Working Title Films, makers of ‘Fargo’, ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘Atonement’.

ENDS