I'm a longtime fan of Nesbø's novels, especially the Harry Hole series. As far as Nordic Noir goes (and, to be fair, most contemporary thrillers I've read), his ability to create intricate plots that never let the tension or pace drop for a single page, and put morally ambiguous characters in extremely twisted situations, is second to none. I was curious to see whether the short stories in The Jealousy Man would prove that he's just as capable of doing all that when space is a lot more limited. Unfortunately, my answer is no.

The first half of the collection follows the common thread of jealousy, which the author handles in a way I very quickly found boring and predictable. A couple of the shorter stories in this section read slightly better (Trash and The Earring stand out for dark humour I found quite entertaining), but for the most part, I found the Jealousy section pretty flat and uninteresting.
 
The second half is dedicated to power, and it's where reading started to get more interesting for me. Just about, though. A few of the stories are yet more variations on themes the book has already covered ad nauseam, and not all the dystopian scenarios Nesbø plays with work well. A dishonourable mention goes to Cicadas, which labours the point of jealousy and male rivalry to an insufferable degree, and as if that wasn't enough, bases its mystery on a parallel universe theory that couldn't be any more confusing.

The collection's redeeming features are two of the longer stories: Rat Island and Black Knight. Both are set in post-apocalyptic worlds (not something I'd normally enjoy, but Nesbø is an author I'm prepared to leave my comfort zone for), and revolve around situations where characters must do everything in their power to survive. It becomes clear pretty quickly that these people are prepared to do almost anything, in fact - and that's where the author's skill for dark storylines and morally compromised characters gets its chance to shine. Spine-chilling scenes abound, there's plenty of gore (don't read Rat Island before going to sleep), and at last, main characters have motivations that go beyond and way deeper than "man meets woman and fights for her affection", or "man hates woman who has cheated on him". For first-time or occasional readers, these two are the ones I'd recommend reading for a taste of what Nesbø does best - keeping in mind that, in his full-length novels, he does it a lot better. Overall, though, The Jealousy Man is pretty unremarkable; I'm tempted to go as far as saying it was a waste of time.