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.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆