Jo Nesbø’s internationally bestselling Harry Hole series has long put him on the top of the mountain in the world of Nordic noir. While he has stepped away previously to pen stand-alone novels, there is nothing he has done thus far that could prepare his fans for his first foray into straight-on horror.

One of the measuring sticks used to separate standard horror writers from elite ones is their ability to revolve their story around young protagonists and still pull off an incredible supernatural tale. Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Robert R. McCammon and the late Richard Laymon have all done it, and now Nesbø makes a bold move by centering THE NIGHT HOUSE on a 14-year-old-boy who loves the supernatural.

Richard Elauved tragically lost his parents in a fire and is now being raised by his aunt and uncle far away from the city in the small town of Ballantyne. To make matters worse, he is not very popular at school. He and his friend, Tom, are out playing a few cruel pranks on various strangers that soon will backfire on them.

"A typical horror novelist might have given readers a wild final act. However, in the hands of Jo Nesbø, THE NIGHT HOUSE goes in an entirely different direction."

The two boys go to a phone booth and start randomly prank-calling different people from the phone book. When they place a call to someone named Imu, Tom tells the person on the other end that he is the devil and is inviting him to hell. What happens next is not only unexpected, but also one of the most graphic, disturbing and unforgettable scenes I have ever come across in a horror novel. Something comes through the phone and attacks Tom by digging into his head with the receiver and then begins to eat him. Richard watches in horror as the blood-soaked phone swallows his friend whole.

With Tom nowhere to be found, and no one believing Richard’s story, his only recourse is to find out who Imu is. Strangely enough, he is unable to find that name again in any phone book. When he eventually traces the location of the call, he lands in front of the extremely creepy and intimidating place nicknamed “The Night House.” The spires on the top of it resemble devil horns, and the village locals have tales to tell about what supposedly goes on inside and to anyone who is unfortunate enough to venture in there.

This big mansion is located in an area known as the Mirror Forest, and everything about it seems wrong. Richard learns that the man named Imu Jonasson hasn’t lived there in decades and was committed to an institution. So who or what was behind Tom’s brutal demise? When another classmate goes missing, also in horrific fashion, Richard and his only other friend, Karen, decide to find out the answers that must lie inside the Night House.

A typical horror novelist might have given readers a wild final act. However, in the hands of Jo Nesbø, THE NIGHT HOUSE goes in an entirely different direction. The narrative here is told and retold in such a way that it deconstructs the entire story you have just read. I could not shake the feeling that Richard may not be the most reliable narrator. I can only hope that this foray into the dark side of fiction is not a lark and that Nesbø plans to take us back here more frequently in the very near future.