Book reviews: The Leopard | The Misogynist | Teach Us To Sit Still | A Journey

A roundup of the week's releases

THE LEOPARD

JO NESBO

Vintage, 7.99 ***

There's a killer on the loose in Norway. And he, or she, has devised a particularly gruesome way to kill people – a sort of grenade placed in the mouth of the victim, which shoots spikes outwards, so they choke on their own blood. Surely a case for Harry Hole, Nesbo's surly, damaged detective. But Hole is in Hong Kong, smoking opium. He's on the run from the Hong Kong mafia, to whom he owes money. The first task for the Oslo cops is to get Hole back – no mean feat. Meanwhile, more women are being killed. Gruesome and compelling.

THE MISOGYNIST

PIERS PAUL READ

Bloomsbury, 7.99 ****

For a while, you're expecting Jomier, a retired barrister, to be a crusty old git. And, in some ways, he fits the bill. He's had a particularly nasty divorce. He holds old-fashioned views. He is bitter. He keeps thinking about his wife, Tilly, being unfaithful when they were married. But Read gets you inside Jomier's head, and it's fascinating, and very readable. Jomier meets a woman, pops Viagra, has a relationship. You keep thinking, and even hoping, that the relationship is doomed. Then something terrible rears its head.

TEACH US TO SIT STILL

TIM PARKS

Vintage, 7.99 ***

For a long time, novelist and essayist Tim Parks suffered from pelvic pain. He had to get out of bed several times a night to go to the loo. He thought he might have a problem with his prostate or bladder. He takes pills. But the pills don't work. Reading all this, you begin to fear the worst. But it turns out the problem is not as serious as Parks thought. He's been sitting at a desk, typing, for decades. He's just tense and anxious, physically and mentally. The thing is: how do you find a cure for that?

A JOURNEY

TONY BLAIR

Arrow, 9.99 ***

TOny Blair's brain is like a highly sophisticated machine dedicated to a single purpose: being liked. Here, we get the important stuff about Iraq, in which he fine-tunes the difference between regretting and feeling responsible for something bad. But the best material is the day-to-day stuff. He is very good and very likeable on Labour's foxhunting fiasco. He's excellent on being a walking media story. I love his description of the "ice-cream with Gordon Brown moment". Somehow, oddly, I like the guy.