Norwegian crime writing giant Jo Nesbo has revealed that he spent his day in Belfast fruitlessly searching for a tee-shirt of his hero, George Best.
Nesbo, a former professional footballer with the top flight Norwegian side Molde FK, couldn’t believe that he was unable find a tee-shirt with the face of one of Belfast’s most famous sons on it.
“You have named an airport after him but you can’t buy a George Best tee-shirt. I think you are missing an opportunity,” he told interviewer Marie-Louise Muir.
The Ulster Hall hasn’t seen anything like it since Charles Dickens played to huge crowds in Belfast in the 1860s.
Hundreds of crime fiction fans packed into the historic building to hear the thoughts of one of the Kings of Scandi-Noir, who was making his long-awaited first visit to Belfast.
David Torrans, owner of No Alibis Bookstore, who organised the event, said the sellout crowd made it by some way the biggest event in Nesbo’s UK and Ireland literary and book-signing tour.
Mr Torrans said: “Jo Nesbo is an author I have been persistently inquiring about over the years. When you are asking about authors there is always this pantheon of writers that are so far up there you wonder if it’s even worth asking. Jo Nesbo would fall into that category along with James Ellroy and Michael Connelly.”
Nesbo, creator of the multi-million selling series of novels starring Oslo detective, Harry Hole, spoke about his writing career, his former roles as footballer, stockbroker and lead vocalist and songwriter with Norwegian rock band Di Derre.
He also answered questions about his career as a writer, focusing on ‘Police’, the tenth book featuring his tough, hard drinking hero, Harry Hole.
Nesbo is one of the hottest properties in the world of crime-writing. Two of his books, ‘Headhunters’ and ‘Jackpot’, have been made into darkly funny crime capers while Martin Scorcese is set to produce a movie of his Harry Hole novel, ‘The Snowman’.
‘Police’, which was published on September 12, concerns a series of killings of police officers related to a series of previously unsolved murders.
When a police officer is found murdered at the scene of an old unsolved murder case that he was involved in investigating, it can hardly be a coincidence. When the same thing happens to two other officers in a matter of months the pattern is as clear as it is terrifying. None of the old cases were ever solved. The killings are extremely brutal and the police have no leads. What’s more, they’re missing their best investigator, Harry Hole.
‘Police’ is published in the UK by Harvill Secker/Random House.
