The Harry Hole series The series follows
Harry Hole, a tough detective working for Crime Squad and later with the
National Criminal Investigation Service, whose investigations take him from Norway to numerous other countries. Hole takes on seemingly unconnected cases, sometimes found to involve serial killers, bank robbers, gangsters, or
the establishment, but spends a significant amount of time battling alcoholism and his own personal demons. The Harry Hole novels are multi-layered, violent, and often feature
women in peril, as typified by
The Snowman. On the return of Harry Hole in
The Thirst, Nesbø said: "I was always coming back to Harry; he is my soul mate. But it is a dark soul, so it is – as always – both a thrill and a chilling, emotionally exhausting experience. But Harry and the story make it worth the sleepless nights." A film adaptation of
The Snowman, with
Tomas Alfredson directing (replacing
Martin Scorsese, who
executive produced), and starring
Michael Fassbender,
Rebecca Ferguson, and
Charlotte Gainsbourg, premiered in October 2017. A television adaptation ''
Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole'' began filming in Oslo in 2024.
The Doctor Proctor series ''Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder'', originally published in 2007, was Nesbø's first children's book. They are illustrated by Mike Lowery. The series is set in Oslo and follows the story of Doctor Proctor, a crazy professor waiting for his big break, his next-door neighbour Lisa and her peculiar friend Nilly, a short redheaded boy. The ruthless twins Truls and Trym Thrane sometimes lurk in the background. Doctor Proctor's first major inventions are a powder that makes the user fart (and the farts don't smell) and the "Fartonaut Powder," which makes the user fart so powerfully that they blast into space. In book 2 he invents a bathtub that allows the user to travel through time. As of 2018, there are 5 books in the series. In 2014, a live-action film adaptation of the first book was made, and is only available in Norwegian. A sequel,
Doktor Proktors Tidsbadekar, was released in 2015 with German involvement. Both films received mixed reviews.
The Olav Johansen series It was announced in October 2013 that, writing under the pen-name of Tom Johansen, Nesbø had written at least two novels provisionally entitled
Blood on Snow and
More Blood on the Water, scheduled to be published in autumn 2014 and spring 2015. The books
Blood on Snow and its sequel
Midnight Sun: Blood on Snow 2 were published in 2015, but under Jo Nesbø's name. It was also announced in October 2013 that
Warner Brothers had bought the rights to
Blood on Snow and planned to make a screen adaptation, to be produced by and possibly starring
Leonardo DiCaprio. However, on 4 April 2017, it was reported that the screen rights had been purchased by
Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures and Lawrence Grey's Grey Matter Productions, and that Maguire would make his directorial debut on the projected film adaptation. Filming on
Blood on Snow took place in Latvia in February 2025. This series follows Olav Johansen, a fixer for Oslo crime boss Daniel Hoffman. In
Blood on Snow, Olav has just found the woman of his dreams. The only problem is that she's his boss's wife and that his boss has hired him to kill her. premiered at the
79th Venice International Film Festival in September 2022.
Other projects In 2011, the Nesbø story
Twelve was adapted by Magnus Martens into the film
Jackpot (), a black comedy crime mystery film. In 2014 it was announced that Nesbø would contribute a re-telling of the story of
Macbeth as part of the
Hogarth Shakespeare project, described as a 'crime noir' version of the
tragedy. His
Macbeth is set in 1970 in an unspecified location that combines aspects of Scandinavia and Scotland, and involves an Inspector Macbeth of a paramilitary
SWAT team targeting bikers, drug dealers, and his police colleagues. It was published in April 2018. In 2016, it was announced that there are also plans to adapt his stand-alone novel,
Sønnen (The Son), as a film, to be directed by
Denis Villeneuve, with
Jake Gyllenhaal as producer and
Channing Tatum in the lead role. On 5 April 2017, it was announced that Icelandic director
Baltasar Kormakur was working on a new adaptation of
I Am Victor, a short story by Nesbø previously planned as an NBC television series but not completed. ==Other work==