The Leopard

by Jo Nesbø
517 pgs  (Hary Hole series #8)

Having been traumatized by the events of the recent Snowman case, Harry Hole has fled the Norwegian Crime Squad and is now in Hong Kong, racking up gambling debts and using heroine as a means to kick his drinking problem. But his former department are in desperate need of his help tracking down Oslo's latest serial killer. So far, two women's bodies have been discovered, both killed in disturbingly ingenious ways, and the Norwegian Crime Squad has no forensic evidence nor clues to go on. 

Bot not long after Hole begins investigating, a third woman is killed, and Hole discovers the connection the three women share, they all recently spent the same night in an isolated mountain hostel. It quickly becomes a race against time to track down and stop the killer before more guests of the hostel are killed.

The Leopard is the meatiest book in the series so far, coming in at over 500 pages, but it doesn't read like a particularly long book. From the first chapter, I was hooked, and as always with the series, found myself pulling for Nesbø's intensely flawed protagonist. It's a gritty and sometimes stomach churning story, but it's an excellent one.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Snowman

by Jo Nesbø
384 pgs  (Harry Hole series #7)

Several years ago, I saw a copy of Jo Nesbø's The Snowman at the bookstore and picked it up. I had never heard of Nesbø before, but after reading the summary of the book on the flap, I was interested and bought it. But I didn't read it. I'm the type that only reads a series from the beginning, and I typically buy the books I read, so I started collecting the previous six books and had to read those first. It's a little sad how long it took me to work my way to finally reading this one, but it didn't disappoint.

The book begins with the first snowfall in Oslo in 1980. A married woman is having an affair with a man and gets startled by what she believes is someone watching them through the window. It turns out to be merely a snowman outside. Twenty-four years later, a young boy wakes up in the night to discover his mother has gone missing. The only clue the police have to go on is the pink scarf the boy gave his mother for Christmas, which is now wrapped around the neck of a snowman, which inexplicably appeared in front of the house earlier that day.

During his investigation, Harry Hole discovers the links between the current missing-woman case and eleven previous cases, all of women who went missing in Norway over the span of several years, and all on the first snow of the season.

The Snowman is the best book in the series so far. I'm a fan of other mystery writers, who rely more on surprise twists and the use of red herrings to misdirect their readers away from the clues they place in the story. But Nesbø doesn't do that. Instead, he methodically and subtly presents the clues for Hole to discover, leading up to a very satisfying reveal by the end. And as good as his mysteries are, Nesbø's characters are always equally fantastic, Hole being primary among them. I'm looking forward to many more stories featuring the character.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Redeemer

by Jo Nesbø
397 pgs (Harry Hole series #6)

In The Redeemer, the sixth book in Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series, Hole is up against a professional assassin named Stankic, a former Croat soldier, who gained the nickname "Little Redeemer" during the war that broke up Yugoslavia.

The story begins back in 1991 with the rape of a 14-year-old girl at a youth camp run by the Norwegian Salvation Army. The girl's attacker was never found. The story then jumps ahead twenty-two years to the killing of a Salvation Army officer during an outdoor Christmas concert in Oslo. When the brother of the officer killed is later the target of a murder attempt, the Norwegian police believe the brothers' entire family is being targeted and Harry is assigned to the case.

Harry's investigations tie the two brothers back to the same youth camp where the young girl was raped, and eventually lead him to Croatia and onto the trail of Stankic, who has one more killing to complete before he plans to retire. As Harry closes in, Stankic becomes desperate and even more dangerous, until it's Harry's life that's on the line.

The Redeemer is a slight departure from the previous books in the series in both style and feel. I thought Nesbø held a lot of key aspects of the story back for most of the book, which ultimately led to a very satisfying conclusion, and I found my impressions of Harry changed more in this book than in any of the others so far. He's still a broken and conflicted protagonist, but I found him much more sympathetic in this one.

If you've never read any of the books in the series, this probably isn't the one to start with. It's good, but I think it's much better if you're familiar with the events that have led up to this one.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Midnight Sun

by Jo Nesbø
273 pgs

I get excited when an author, who writes a series I follow, comes out with a stand-alone book. It's ice to be introduced to a new character, with the understanding that everything the author is ever going to tell you about him or her is contained in this one single book. Nesbø, who has his fantastic series featuring Norwegian police detective Harry Hole, has done this a few times now.

Midnight Sun begins when Jon Hansen, who goes by "Ulf," gets off a bus in a small town near the Arctic Ocean in Norway. He's a small-time hashish dealer, who only began dealing in order to feed his own use of the drug, and he's living on the run, hiding from killers hired by a powerful drug lord known as the Fisherman he double crossed. Ulf is hoping this small town, where the sun doesn't set for six months of the year, will provide an ideal place for him to disappear.

But Ulf isn't there long before he begins to become infatuated with Lea, the daughter of the town's minister, and fond of her ten-year-old son Knut. They're devout members of the fundamentalist Lutheran sect in town, which makes for an interesting dynamic between them as their relationship grows, and it's their relationship that Nesbø places at the center of his story. Even as the action picks up and the Fisherman's men begin to close in on Ulf, his relationship with Lea and Knut remain the biggest part of Nesbø's story.

Midnight Sun is a quick, enjoyable book. Like Blood on Snow, Nesbø's last stand-alone book, it's shorter than any of the Harry Hole books, and focuses more on the relationships between characters than on the mysteries surrounding a crime. But it still showcases Nesbø's ability to tell a great story.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Macbeth

by Jo Nesbø
446 pgs

Hargarth Shakespeare is a project launched a few years ago, which enlisted bestselling novelists to reimagine some of the works of William Shakespeare. Norwegian thriller writer Jo Nesbø is the seventh author to contribute to the project with his take on Macbeth. Gillian Flynn will be next with a book based on Hamlet due out in a few years.

Nesbø's story is set in Scotland, sometime in the early 1970s, during a time of political corruption, rampant drug abuse, and high suicide rates. The city is run by Hecate, an untouchable drug lord who manufactures a drug called "brew," which many of the city's citizens are hooked on.

Inspector Macbeth is a member of the SWAT team, who is promised the position of police chief by three of Hecate's henchwomen as long as he does nothing to interfere with Hecate's operation. After he discusses the message he received with his "Lady," a casino operator, the two of them conspire to murder Duncan, the Chief Police Commissioner and frame his bodyguards. But Duncan's death is only the beginning, and soon Macbeth, egged on by Lady, and fueled by brew-induced hallucinations, finds his life spiraling out of control.

Nesbø does an admirable job balancing the overall framework of Shakespeare's play with the elements of a modern-day crime thriller, and those familiar with the play should enjoy the numerous head nods he gives it. But Shakespeare purists may have some issues with the story. He doesn't shy away from straying far from the source material while infusing it with the high level of grit and darkness he's best at.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Devil's Star

by Jo Nesbø
452 pgs  (Harry Hole series #5)

The Devil's Star is the fifth installment in Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's crime series featuring detective Harry Hole. This time Harry is brought out of his alcohol-infused stupor to track down a serial killer in Oslo.

It begins when a young woman is found shot dead in her apartment. One of her fingers has been severed and a red star-shaped diamond is discovered under one of her eyelids. Five days later an actress goes missing. When her finger arrives at the police station wearing a ring with a red star-shaped diamond, Harry realizes more victims will likely follow. Sure enough, with the precision timing Scandinavians are known for, they do.

But finding and stopping the killer isn't the only thing Harry's trying to do. He's also trying to expose one of his colleagues, Tom Waaler, whom Harry believes is behind many of the illegal weapons being smuggled into Oslo. He also believes Waaler was behind the killing of Harry's former partner.

For those not familiar with the series, this one's probably not the one to start with. Not because it's not a good book. It's as good, if not better than it's four predecessors. But a reader would be better served getting to know Harry and his tumultuous life through the earlier books before reading The Devil's Star. It's also important to know the backstory between him and Waaler.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Nemesis

by Jo Nesbø

474 pgs  (Harry Hole series #4)

Jo Nesbø doesn’t waste any time getting things going with his fourth book featuring Norwegian police officer Harry Hole. The book opens with a bank robbery in Oslo. The man robbing the bank gives the teller 25 seconds to give him all the money in the ATM. When the teller takes six seconds too long, he shoots her and flees, leaving no forensic evidence behind.

Harry is partnered with Beate Lønn, a young video evidence expert, to investigate what ends up being the first in a string of professionally-executed bank robberies. In her analysis of the surveillance video, Lønn becomes convinced from the robber and victim’s body language that the two knew each other.

During the course of the investigation, Harry is invited by an old girlfriend, Anna Bethsen, to have dinner together. The following morning Harry wakes up in his own apartment with a hangover and no recollection of the night’s events. Later that day, Anna is discovered dead, having apparently shot herself in a suicide attempt. But when Harry notices that the gun is in her wrong hand, he believes she was murdered sometime during the night he was with her, and he’s not certain he wasn’t the one who did it.

The deeper Harry and Beate get into the investigation, the more complex the case becomes.

Once again Nesbø’s ability to create intriguing characters and weave them into a plot containing enough twists and turns to keep you constantly on your toes is on full display. Four books into the series and Harry Hole is turning out to be a fascinating anti-hero. He’s constantly fighting his addictions to alcohol and heroin, all while committing as many crimes as he helps solve. 

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Redbreast

by Jo Nesbø
521 pgs  (Harry Hole series #3)

With The Redbreast, the third book in Jo Nesbø’s crime fiction series featuring Norwegian detective Harry Hole (pronounced “Hō-leh”—something I feel compelled to mention each time I review a book in the series), Nesbø reaches his full writing stride.

During the Nazi’s occupation of Norway in World War II, thousands of Norwegians “volunteered” to serve alongside German troops fighting on the Eastern Front. After the war those soldiers returned to Norway and were labeled traitors and many were thrown into prison, scapegoats who carried their country’s sins when the Axis powers lost. Unsurprisingly, many of them spent the rest of their lives carrying deep-seeded embitterment towards their country and its leaders. One of those men, now in his seventies and dying of cancer, has begun killing those who served with him in Leningrad.

When an extremely expensive and powerful rifle is smuggled into Norway by a group of skinheads and sold to someone, Harry suspects that something significant is being planned. And as the body count starts to climb, and as it includes someone very close to Harry, he races to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Numerous times throughout the book, Nesbø alternates between two different timelines. The first takes place in modern-day Norway, and follows Hole’s investigation into the killings. The second takes place in Leningrad in the 1940s, and tells the story of a small group of soldiers who fought and survived the brutal conditions there. For much of the book, it’s not clear what the connection between the two storylines is, but as the story draws to its frantic conclusion, Nesbø rewards us with a thrilling and very satisfying conclusion.

The Redbreast was voted “Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written” by members of Norwegian book clubs, high praise from a relatively insignificant population. BUT, with a movie adaptation of one of his later Harry Hole books (The Snowman) in production for release later this year starring Michael Fassbender, and another starring Jake Gyllenhaal in the works, it’s likely that his fanbase will be expanding significantly soon. Regardless, with each book by him that I read, I become more and more excited about what Norwegian book clubs have apparently been aware of for a while now.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Cockroaches

by Jo Nesbø
374 pgs  (Harry Hole series #2)

Cockroaches is Jo Nesbø's second novel featuring detective Harry Hole (pronounced "Ho-leh"). He introduced his severely-flawed protagonist in The Bat, and has since written several more in the series (which I'm looking forward to reading).

This time Harry is sent to Bangkok to investigate the murder of the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand. The ambassador had been found stabbed to death in a seedy motel by a prostitute who was planning to meet him there. Harry was sent from Norway to try to quietly investigate the ambassador's death while avoiding any scandalous news coverage. As Harry begins his investigation, he quickly learns that he's been sent there to simply whitewash over the crime, and that no one is interested in uncovering why the ambassador was killed, and by whom.

Bangkok has a pretty well-known reputation for catering to criminal activity; child prostitution, opium dens, and organized crime just to name a few. Which makes it a great location for Nesbø to send Harry. Harry has his vices, and while he periodically seems to get his act together long enough to complete an investigation, Nesbø makes it clear that he's always on the edge of a relapse.

But what makes Harry such a fantastic character, is the fact that it's clear that at his core he's a good person, and will go to great lengths, even sacrificing himself if needed, to protect the innocent and uncover the truth.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Bat

by Jo Nesbø
374 pgs  (Harry Hole series #1)

The Bat is the first in Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole (pronounced Hoe-lee) series. Harry is an Oslo police detective who is sent to Australia to assist with the murder investigation of Inger Holter, a beautiful young Norwegian woman who was a minor celebrity back home in Norway. Inger, Harry soon learns, is the latest victim of a serial killer Australian authorities weren't even aware existed.

During his investigation into her murder Harry teams up with Andrew Kensington, an Aboriginal police detective who leads Harry through the Australian drug scene, introduces him to a homosexual clown, and takes him to a local boxing match; three seemingly unrelated events, but which all play an important role in identifying the killer.

The Bat is a decent enough story. It's interesting and well written, but it's not hard to understand why it wasn't translated into English until the series was well underway. The first book in the series to be translated was the third book, and several more were written and translated before The Bat got its turn. The Bat offers some important background into Harry's life though, background that adds depth to the character and offers some insight into a life that seems become increasingly more troubled as the series progresses.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Blood on Snow

by Jo Nesbø
208 pgs

Olav is a "fixer." He works for one of Oslo's most powerful crime bosses, a man named Daniel Hoffmann, and when Daniel wants someone dead, Olav gets a call. Olav is not your standard killer though, he's not the ruthless and emotionless type that you so often find in books and movies featuring assassins.

Olav is a deeply emotional man. His favorite book is Les Misérables and he often gives the money he earns from his fixes to the widows he creates. So far though, Olav's emotions haven't stopped him from completing any of the jobs he's been assigned, but that changes when Daniel calls and tells him to kill Daniel's new young wife, Corina.

As Olav begins watching Corina, deciding the best place and time to kill her, he decides that this is a job he's not willing to complete, a decision that puts his own life in jeopardy and results in a fast-paced thriller that ends far too quickly.

Despite what the cover says, Blood on Snow is not a novel. It's just over 200 pages long, and since the book itself is smaller than a typical novel, each page is maybe half the length. It's a novella and can be read in one or two sittings, but it's time well spent. It's a great introduction for those who have never read a book by Nesbø, an author who is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Son

by Jo Nesbø
402 pgs

Remember the name Jo Nesbø. He's a Norwegian author who's best known internationally, and ever increasingly here in the U.S., for his series featuring Harry Hole, an anti-authoritarian cop. With Martin Scorsese slated to direct The Snowman (Harry Hole # 7), I think Nesbø's time of relative obscurity here in the States will be coming to an end soon. The Son is a stand-alone novel and therefore a great book to serve as an introduction to Nesbø if you've never read anything by him.

Sonny Lofthus is an addict whose life spiraled out of control at the age of 18 following his father's apparent suicide. Sonny has been serving time in prison ever since for crimes he didn't commit. He confessed to committing them on the promise of a constant supply of drugs for as long as he's locked up. He's a self-hating tool being used by a ruthless crime lord in Oslo, but that all changes when he learns from another inmate that many years ago his father was murdered. Sonny's life finally has a purpose again and he sets into motion his plan to escape from prison and exact revenge against those responsible for his father's death and his own imprisonment.

It's a great story and it reminded me throughout of one of my all-time favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo. The characters are complex, from Sonny to Simon Kefas, the cop trying to stop his killing spree, and you can't help but pull for both of them, even though neither one of them is a knight in shining armor.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Phantom

by Jo Nesbø
(Harry Hole series #9)

For the past few years I've been hearing a lot about Norwegian author Jo Nesbø. I've frequently seen his books on the staff recommendation shelves when I go into various bookstores, and for awhile now I've considered trying one of them. I see now why he's been labeled by some as the next Stieg Larsson.

Once again I broke my own rule of starting at the beginning of a series and jumped in with book #9. Harry Hole, the protagonist in the series is a cop, or an ex-cop by the time this one starts. It doesn't take long to figure out that he's not your typical series hero. He's a complex character who is constantly struggling against his personal demons, and more often than not, losing that battle.

As Phantom begins, a new drug has begun to appear on the streets of Oslo. It's called violin, and it's far more addictive and powerful than heroin, but it doesn't allow the user to overdose. Harry gets dragged back to Oslo from his new home in Hong Kong to investigate the murder of a dealer of violin. Harry has a personal connection to the young man who is accused of killing the dealer. 

Phantom, and I would imagine the rest of the series, are not for those with delicate sensibilities. It's gritty and dark. But at the same time, it's very well written and full of unexpected plot twists and very interesting characters. I had a tough time putting it down and am definitely looking forward to reading more by Nesbø and finding out more about his highly original main character.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆