Norwegian detective writer Jo Nesbo has become one of our favorites. We've devoured his 11 novels about Harry Hole (pronounced Ho-lay), a gangly, hard-drinking, hard-thinking, unsociable detective. (It's the unsociable part that took us in.) So when we found out that one of the novels, "The Snowman", was being made into a movie, we couldn't help but get excited. Martin Scorsese was going to direct!

Then, Scorsese pulled out. Then, there were strange casting choices. Nesbo's work is quintessentially Nordic; here we have Michael Fassbender (German, not gangly enough) as Harry, Charlotte Gainsbourg (French Jew, daughter of previously-profiled troubadour Serge) as his love Rakel, plus, somehow, Val Kilmer. Then, Scorsese's replacement bashed his own work, calling the movie "unfinished". The reviews have been brutal.

So we are gonna stay away, lest our love for Nesbo be clouded by the supposedly awful film. But you, dear reader, check out the books... especially if you can relate to the unsociable.