The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. Harvill Secker; €14.50

MANY authors can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand: this former footballer, soldier, musician and financial analyst is one of the few who knows how to keep them upright.

It’s a talent that’s rapidly getting him noticed — Jo Nesbo is already winner of the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel, an accolade shared with Henning Mankell and Steig Larson. His books have been translated into 30 languages and he’s regarded as one of Europe’s leading crime writers.

The Snowman, his fifth novel featuring Inspector Harry Hole to be translated into English, is a creepy tale that begins on the night the first snow falls. A boy wakes to find his mother has disappeared. When he searches for her, he discovers wet footprints on the stairs. With horror, he looks out of the window and sees a snowman. Around its neck is a pink scarf — his mother’s.

DI Harry Hole has to deal with two problems: a sharp-eyed, forceful new female partner, Katrine Bratt; and a serial killer, the first in his career. The maverick police inspector is convinced there’s a link between the woman’s disappearance and a menacing letter he received some months earlier, signed The Snowman. Then, a second woman disappears.

As Harry and his team delve into unsolved case files, they find that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years — often on the day when snow begins to fall.

His suspicions are confirmed, and, for the first time, Harry is confronted with a serial killer operating on his turf. This person is a formidably intelligent, proficient killer whose motive is complex. The Snowman is no simple story; this encompasses sadistic murder, irresponsible parenting, infidelity, betrayal and the tragic time-bombs concealed in some human DNA.