Jo Nesbo – Writer, Musician, and Economist

Jo Nesbo is a Norwegian author of Crime fiction.

Who is Jo Nesbo?

Jo (Jon) Nesbo was born 26 March 1960 in Oslo and grew up in Molde. His mother was a librarian, and his father loved to tell stories.

In his early days, his greatest passion was soccer. Nesbo played top-flight football for Molde FK until he tore the cruciate ligaments in his knee, and chose to concentrate on other aspects of his life.

As he had concentrated on soccer for all of his schooling life, he knew his grades were not good enough for further career options. Nesbo decided thus, to sign up for military service in the far north of Norway. It was here that he worked on redoing his schooling curriculum and improving his grades. He received top grades after completion. He went on to study economics.

Nesbo’s career as an economist

He graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics with a degree in Economics and Business Administration. He worked as a freelance journalist and a stockbroker before he began his writing career.

Nesbø also became the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre, which produced one of the bestselling albums in Norway.

As Nesbo did not enjoy the rat race of economics and had no time for his passion (writing), he chose to take six months off from his job as a stockbroker and pursue writing his first novel.

We got on a plane and headed for Australia. The thirty-hour journey gave him plenty of time in which to lay out the plot of his novel. Once he had landed, the character of Harry Hole was born.

Nesbo’s writing career

The Harry Hole Series

This is the first series of novels written by Jo Nesbo. The novel follows the main character Harry Hole who is a tough detective working for Crime Squad and later with the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos). Harry’s Investigations take him to various countries and cities worldwide solving cases as well as spending a significant amount of time battling alcoholism and his own demons. Harry Hole novels are multi-layered, violent, and often feature women in peril.

What books are part of the Harry Hole Series?

The Bat

Cockroaches – Available on Bakgat Books

The Redbreast – Available on Bakgat Books

Nemesis

The Devil’s Star – Available on Bakgat Books

The Redeemer

The Snowman

The Leopard

Phantom – Available on Bakgat Books

Police

The Thirst

Knife

Killing Moon

The Doctor Proctor series

Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder, published in 2007, was Nesbø’s first children’s book. They are illustrated by Mike Lowery. The series is set in Oslo, Norway, and follows the story of Doctor Proctor, a crazy professor waiting for his big break. Doctor Proctor’s first major invention is a powder that makes the user fart so powerfully that they blast into space. In book 2 he invents a bathtub that allows the user to travel through time. As of 2018, there are 5 books in the Doctor Proctor series.

The Olav Johansen series

In 2015, 2 books were published titled Blood on Snow and its sequel Midnight Sun. This series follows Olav Johansen, a fixer for Oslo crime boss Daniel Hoffman. In Blood on Snow, Olav has just found the woman of his dreams. The only problem is that she’s his boss’s wife and that his boss has hired him to kill her.