The Snowman

The Snowman is the seventh book in Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series. Originally published in Norway by H. Aschehoug & Co. in 2007, the novel’s English translation was published by Vintage Books in 2010. Typical of Nordic noir, The Snowman is a dark police procedural mystery and its protagonist, Harry Hole, is an obsessive detective who struggles with both his professional and personal lives. According to Nesbø, the character was inspired by another popular detective, author Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch. The Snowman was adapted in 2017 into a film starring Michael Fassbender. Other notable books in the series include The Devil’s Star, the first Harry Hole book to be translated into English, and The Redbreast, the third book in the series.

This study guide uses the ebook edition of the text, published in 2011 by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Content Warning: This text contains graphic descriptions of murder and violence.

Plot Summary

The Snowman follows Harry Hole’s attempts to track down a serial killer. Harry receives an anonymous letter that mentions a previous serial killer case that he solved in Australia. The letter asks, “Who made the snowman?” Harry’s interest is piqued. He discovers that, over the past 10 years, married women have been disappearing at a higher rate than usual in Norway.

When another woman disappears, Harry and his team investigate and notice a snowman in her yard. This connection to the letter makes Harry realize that someone is targeting married women, and the snowman is the killer’s calling card. This woman’s disappearance is quickly followed by another woman’s murder; her decapitated head is found atop a snowman in the woods.

Harry and his new partner, Katrine, put together clues and realize that both women’s children went to the same doctor. From there, they discover that the killer, whom they have begun calling the Snowman, is targeting women whose husbands are not their children’s biological fathers. They are also able to connect these new crimes with cold cases from the nearby city of Bergen and the disappearance of a notorious police officer there.

For a time, it seems as if Katrine herself is the Snowman; however, while she is in custody, the Snowman claims another victim. Harry discovers that, rather than being the killer, Katrine is that Bergen police officer’s daughter and purposely brought the cases to Harry’s attention to find the Snowman and clear her father’s name.

The answers are beginning to come clear to Harry, but time runs out as his ex-girlfriend, Rakel, and her son, Oleg, are targeted by the killer. The Snowman has decided to play a game with Harry and nearly kills Rakel in the process. With this final murder attempt, the Snowman reveals himself. Harry discovers that the Snowman is Mathias, Rakel’s current boyfriend, who began his killing career as a child when he killed his own mother. In a climactic scene, Harry follows Mathias to the top of a ski jump, where Mathias nearly kills both of them. After the case is closed, Harry tells Rakel that he has decided to leave Norway and will never return.