Bestselling novelist (and also, incidentally, a popular children’s author, rock star and former pro footballer), Jo Nesbø is a leading light of Scandinavian crime fiction and frequent international chart-topper. At one point, his books were selling at a rate of one every 23 seconds.

Nesbø is perhaps most widely known for his 10-volume, Oslo-set Harry Hole detective series, which plays out against a backdrop of criminal corruption, deceit and violence. Hollywood has pricked up its ears to Nordic noir, and a film is in the pipeline.

His latest thriller, Blood on Snow, steps out of the Harry Hole universe to present the hard-boiled tale of a hitman who falls for his target, in a narrative inspired by the cinema of Tarantino, the cultural legacy of the mob movie, and the taut, laconic style of the great American detective authors.

Nesbø is marking the publication of the book’s English translation with an evening at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, where he will introduce the new book and discuss his relationship with Harry Hole’s Oslo, as well as give the audience the chance to get their hands on a copy of Blood on Snow while it’s still hot off the presses.

Photo: Stian Andersen