Each of these stories could be a primer in the seven deadly sins, as it seems Nesbø focuses on a different one in each tale. He divides the pieces into different subcategories, and you will understand why once you read them all." This architect, Henrik Bakke, I don’t know how she met him. She always said she met him after I moved out, and at first I believed her. But friends have told me how naive I was, pointing out that the guy moved in almost immediately. Before my side of the bed was even cold, as one of my friends put it. And yet, officer – and I know this may sound strange – it’s actually a sort of comfort to know that it was her feelings for someone else that ruined everything for us. That what Simone and I had wasn’t the kind of thing that just burns itself out of its own accord. That it took love to conquer love.’

So I wasn’t all that surprised to meet Bakke again at the Kiwi store on Saturday morning a couple of weeks later. We both laughed when I looked in a very demonstrative way at the bag of Twists in his shopping trolley. And he asked about the divorce papers, he said Simone’s lawyer was waiting for them. I said I’d had a lot to do but that I would see to it next week. I was perhaps a little annoyed with him for bringing it up. I mean, what was the rush? He’d taken my place in her bed, surely that was enough to be going on with? It almost seemed as though he could hardly wait to get married to her. And her millions. So I asked him straight out if they were planning to get married. He looked bewildered, so I repeated my question. He smiled wanly and shook his head. And then I got the picture.’ I straighten the liquorice wrapper between my fingers. ‘Lakris – lakrits – lakrids’ it says. Danish and Swedish as well as Norwegian. Easy to understand anyway. It’s good when neighbours speak almost the same language. Jo Nesbo is not a new-to-me author as I am slowly making my way through his Harry Hole series. I have also read a few of his stand-alones and really liked them, so when I heard he had a collection of short stories coming out, I knew I had to read them. I’ve really come to enjoy reading short stories recently and had to see what spin Nesbo would put on them.

It’s just an inventory I’ve made. Don’t let your feelings get in the way of common sense now, Arne. Try to see this as a controlled liquidation.’ Los primeros relatos ( Londres, El hombre celoso y La cola) se sintieron como algo conocido, tenían un giro predecible que no les quitó que fueran entretenidos. Toda la construcción de El hombre celoso estuvo bien hecha, pero como dije, era predecible y eso le quitaba un poco de potencia al final. Basura resultó interesante, aunque principalmente por el tono y la voz narrativa, la forma en que el mismo protagonista no sabía bien lo que sucedió y el cómo todo se fue develando, admito que esperé un poco más del final, pero estuvo bien. This collection is divided into two sections – Jealousy and Power – and as I typically find when I read collections of short stories I definitely liked some more than others. The stories are dark and they include morally grey characters, which I loved. And none of them ended the way I expected to them…they are filled with great twists that really keep you guessing the entire time as to where it is heading, no matter how long each story is. Disfruté los relatos mucho más de lo que pensé que lo haría, me alivió saber que puedo disfrutar de Jo Nesbø incluso en historias cortas. Sé que la serie Harry Hole no es una obra de arte, pero la verdad es que le tengo cierto cariño, por eso quería leer al autor en otro estilo para ver si seguía disfrutando de su pluma.

And yet I’ve never been jealous of Henrik Bakke. Isn’t that funny? At least not in the sense of hating him or having a grudge against him. I think the way I looked at it was that he was just another guy same as me, he loved Simone more than anything else on earth. I actually thought of him more as someone in the same boat as me than as a rival.’ And I also know that murder is bound to look bad for me as the scorned husband. It gives me a motive. I could have come to see her, I knew where she kept the poison, I could have slipped it into her coffee and then left. I imagine that’s why you’ve been to my place, to see if there’s a match between any of my clothes and the fibres you found here in Simone’s house.’ This was my first Jo Nesbø book and I enjoyed most of his stories and his dark humour and plot twists. His Harry Hole novel's are meant to be excellent so I look forward to diving into them one day. Una vez más voy a diferir de las corriente generalizada de opiniones sobre este libro: a mi me ha parecido una puñetera maravilla.

Jo Nesbø

The reason you haven’t found anything is simple. I haven’t been here, officer. At least not this past year. And the housekeeper does a thorough job with her vacuum cleaner.’ Abstenerse lectores de historias fáciles, los relatos no lo son, el autor parte, en cada relato, de un total caos literario en el que poco o nada tiene sentido para el lector, para después, brillantemente ir poniendo luz en cada historia. Si quieres enterarte desde el principio de lo que está pasando, si no quieres o no tienes tiempo para prestar mucha atención, no es tu libro. Svidio mi se i način na koji Nesbø ovdje portretira likove, tj. naglasak koji stavlja na likove koji su više možda zlikovci nego heroji i splet okolnosti koji ih je natjerao da to budu. Ljubomora je sama po sebi snažna emocija, korijen mnogih krivih postupaka i skretanja u pogrešnom smjeru. Ovdje je ona ono nešto što sve priče povezuje, ali i ono nešto što ih sve pokreće. With Nesbø’s characteristic gift for outstanding atmosphere and gut-wrenching revelations, The Jealousy Manconfirms that he is at the peak of his abilities. We were the perfect Twist couple, Simone and I,’ I say, and halfway expect the officer to raise one eyebrow and give me a puzzled look. ‘I’m not thinking of the dance but the chocolate,’ I explain. The officer evidently doesn’t have a sense of humour. ‘I like liquorice and nougat and I hate banana creams. As it happens she loved the banana creams. You know, the ones with the yellow-and-green wrapping. Oh yes, of course, you’ve already . . . If ever we had guests I had to take them all out before I put the dish out, so she could have them herself the next day.’

But you didn’t, officer. You didn’t manage to connect the poison to the remains of chocolate you found in her stomach because the chocolate had already melted and dissolved. So I began to worry that Henrik Bakke might get away with it.’But once a second body arrives on his slab I’m pretty sure the coroner is going to be able to work it out, don’t you think? That the murder weapon was right there in front of you the whole time?’ I can feel the springs beneath the sofa cover against my thighs. An old rococo sofa, her style. Had he had her on this sofa, her new guy, the architect? He moved in just a few weeks after I moved out. For all I know he was screwing her on the sofa while I was still living in the house. The officer doesn’t ask me to explain what I mean when I say I know what they’re thinking, so I go ahead on my own initiative: Meet a detective on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a hired assassin facing his greatest adversary; and two passengers meeting by chance on a plane, spelling romance or something far more sinister. The title story, “The Jealousy Man,” is an above-average novella. Here, Inspector Nikos Balli has flown to a small Greek isle called Kalymnos. There he meets up with a colleague, George Kostopoulos, where they discuss the case that Balli has been assigned --- the disappearance of Julian Schmid. The prime suspect, and probably the last person to see him alive, is his twin brother, Franz.