Roy and Carl Opgard have a lifetime of secrets. So many, that even their secrets have secrets.
Far removed from the world of Detective Harry Hole, Nesbo sinks his teeth into a village full of fascinating characters to bring us this standalone novel that the reader will immediately be immersed in, but likely not be able to leave nearly so easily. This epic story that takes us from boyhood to manhood in the Opgard household will continue to bring up questions of morality, ethics, family bonds, secrets, and lies long after it is over.
The Opgard brothers long ago inherited what their father often referred to as “The Kingdom” – their land on top of a mountain. Roy has remained here in the village all his life while Carl has traveled, been schooled abroad, and grown into a prosperous-looking business developer. Now Carl is coming back to the village – with big plans. Carl’s return brings back old stories and rumours, reopens old wounds, and exposes old secrets.
Carl’s return is what causes Roy to ruminate over old childhood memories, and the reader is taken back to the beginning – to the traumatic childhood that they long ago stopped speaking of. We come to know Roy deeply, beginning in childhood, as it is through his eyes that we see the world where all of these events take place. But, through Nesbo’s exquisite writing, though we see this world through Roy, we are able to clearly understand the motivations of other characters, even when Roy does not. In other words, there are events in the story that come as a surprise to Roy, but all we can do as the reader is wait and dread the pain that he will eventually have to face.
The incredibly tight bonds that are born out of their childhood cause a great deal of the conflict in the story itself, and as the reader it makes sense to start thinking about when those family bonds actually start to turn in to enabling. Does brotherly love come before absolutely all else? No matter what? Once you have crossed a line for your brother, will you do it again? Will you refuse, or will it be even easier?
There are some twists and reveals in the story where the reader may be able to predict the ‘what’ but will still be completely engrossed in learning the ‘how’ and the ‘why.’ For instance, there comes a point in the story where the rug is pulled out from under us. The facts we have come to accept are not so and we see our reality slowly dismantled. We might have thought we had the Opgard’s and their lives figured out, but this lets us know that we do not have any idea what is going to come next.
The Kingdom is a story of shame, lies, lust, grief, family, and love. It is an epic tale of contrasts as it sees people (and life) as both beautiful and harsh, looks at people in the village as cogs in a machine while those living outside the village are almost anonymous strangers, and sees just how ugly the beautiful concept of brotherly love can be.
The Kingdom is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Roy and Carl have spent their whole lives running from the darkness in their past, but when Carl finally returns to make peace with it, the two brothers are inexorably drawn into a reckoning with their own demons.
Roy has never left the quiet mountain town he grew up in, unlike his little brother Carl who couldn’t wait to get out and escape his troubled past. Just like everyone else in town, Roy believed Carl was gone for good. But Carl has big plans for his hometown. And when he returns with a mysterious new wife and a business opportunity that seems too good to be true, simmering tensions begin to surface and unexplained deaths in the town’s past come under new scrutiny. Soon powerful players set their sights on taking the brothers down by exposing their role in the town’s sordid history.
But Roy and Carl are survivors, and no strangers to violence. Roy has always protected his younger brother. As the body count rises, though, Roy’s loyalty to family is tested. And then Roy finds himself inextricably drawn to Carl’s wife, Shannon, an attraction that will have devastating consequences. Roy’s world is coming apart and soon there will be no turning back. He’ll be forced to choose between his own flesh and blood and a future he had never dared to believe possible.
