Someone in town is killing people connected to firearms—those who sell weapons or actively support the right to own them. The main suspect is Tomás Gomez, a man involved in drug trafficking. Bob Oz, a detective with the Minneapolis Police Department, is assigned to the case while his own private life is slowly falling apart. During the investigation, Bob befriends a taxidermist who knows Gomez and is commissioned to prepare a cat for him – an odd detail that draws Bob even deeper into the suspect’s world. As events unfold, the case becomes far more complex and unsettling than it initially appears. I had never read Jo Nesbø before, partly because I suspected I would love his novels and feel compelled to read them all. That is exactly what happened: I was completely hooked by this gripping, brilliantly constructed plot and now I’m eager to read more.
‘Well, all sorts of things,’ said Lunde as he replaced the books on the shelf. ‘Why it is that loneliness is so troubling. None of our most basic physical needs require the presence of several or even one other human being. Breathe, eat, work, get food, get dressed, fall ill and recover, shit, piss, sleep. From nature’s point of view, we are fully capable of living long, full and wholly satisfactory lives entirely on our own. In many cases better lives than the ones we get when we enter into a union and voluntarily or involuntarily allow our lives to be guided by the needs of others. And yet no one asks themselves whether the ending of Robinson Crusoe, when he gets rescued, is a happy ending or not. Think about it. I mean, he’s managed to organise things pretty well on that island – what guarantee does he have that the life he gets when he goes back to living with other people will be as good? He’s losing his freedom, his daily swims, a territory that’s all his own with limitless access to food, no working hours, no boss. And for what? But we don’t even wonder about it, we just take it for granted that we’re willing to give up all this for just one thing: the company of other people.’
‘But if we don’t need others, then why is loneliness so intolerable?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Biology. If we all thought it was fine to be alone, we wouldn’t want to reproduce ourselves.’
Lunde raised a finger to point to a glass case full of butterflies hanging on the wall behind him. ‘Some species meet up for the purpose of reproduction only.’
Original Title : Minnesota
Translated from Norwegian
Listened to as an audiobook