"This stand-alone gives us a brilliant array of variously flawed human beings involved in a tale of intricate plotting, excellent characterization, made-for-the-movies effects and images, and a multifaceted surprise ending. . . . A true thriller from start to finish." --
Library Journal "A twisty, plot-driven Hitchcockian thriller. . . . Nesbo delivers one shock after the other, culminating with a doozy of a switcheroo at the finish. It's gripping reading." --
Booklist "Nesbø takes a break from his Harry Hole detective series . . . with this stellar stand-alone caper.. . . . The dizzying reversals of fortune and situations that would be over-the-top in lesser hands make for a delightful roller-coaster ride. Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard fans will be delighted."--
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"If you don't know Nesbø, it's time to get with it." --
USA Today "Like [Stieg] Larsson, Nesbø explores the darkest criminal minds with grim delight and puts his killers where you least expect to find them. . . . [and] his novels are maddeningly addictive." --
Vanity Fair "Chances are you'll be hooked . . . as Nesbø lays down a trail rich in Nordic atmosphere and in character-driven development . . . Ultimately, though, what sets Nesbø apart is his ability to keep the pages turning with such intellectual dexterity."
--Newsday "Nesbø has a horrormeister's flair for transforming natural scenes into ominous situations." --
The New York Times Book Review
"Irresistibly addictive. . . . This is reading as you experienced it in childhood, without any gap between eye and mind, but with the added pleasures that adult plots and adult characters can bring. . . . Brilliantly conceived, carefully worked out, and complicatedly satisfying." --
Slate "Nesbø's books have a serious, socially significant heft, as well as a confident (even cocky) narrative stride that is unmatched." --
Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Nesbø's pace is unerring, and the way he builds up suspense will incite Pavlovian page-turning." --
Time Out New York
"With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction. . . . I hesitate no longer. [Nesbø] wins. . . . This is crime writing of the highest order." --
The Times (London)
"A mind-blowing story that captivates the reader from the very first page. ... [Nesbø] has found a delightfully laconic, hard-boiled tone in Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett's tracks, which triumphs exactly where it should: when circumstances are the worst, the bullets zing by and the corpses pile up. . . . Entertaining, sharp and suspenseful." --
Dagens Nyheter (Sweden)
"This book is one you absolutely have to read. . . . The outrageous storytelling is so stimulating, it makes James Ellroy look like a Boy Scout and Bret Easton Ellis like a Sunday-school boy." --
Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)
"A highly entertaining, first-rate crime novel, where Nesbø uses his entire register of narrative techniques and tricks to tell a story that is wilder and more zany than anything he has ever written before." --
Dagbladet (Norway)
"Nesbø can out-write most of his Scandinavian colleagues. . . . Cleverly written and effectively composed, and you can easily devour it in one ravishing read." --
Nordjyske Stiftstidende (Denmark)
"
Headhunters has everything that makes a good crime novel: Strange murders, inventive disappearing acts and above all brilliant fraud for all you're worth." --
Bogrummet (Denmark)
"The reader is glued to the pages like gum to the street. . . . With
Headhunters, Nesbø has accomplished [a] . . . brilliant and elegant thriller." --
Dagsavisen (Norway)