Play Book Tag discussion

I am a biased fan, so my passion for this series among the steam of Nordic Noir hits has to be considered in that context. The figure of tough and sensitive Harry Hole, usually detective with the Olso major crimes squad, is up there in my pantheon of fictional crime fighters, which includes near the heavens Harry Bosch, Dave Robicheaux, Elvis Cole, Virgil Flowers, Jack Reacher, Walt Longmire, and Spenser.

At curtain rise, Harry is basically living under a rock in Hong Kong. The threats and damages experienced by his wife Rakel while he worked the Snowman serial murder case led her to split town, taking their son Oleg with her. Harry’s guilt and isolation eventually moved him to split, too, with the planned pit-stop of Hong Kong becoming more of a permanent site of hiding. As a female detective Kaja from Oslo finds out when she is sent there to fetch him, he is living a marginal existence in a youth hostel with a growing addiction to opium and hiding out from a criminal gang who bought his debt gambling at the horse races. Unless you have come to respect Harry’s tenacity in police work and love him for his courage and loyalty to the deserving few, these sections will not warm your heart to him.

The urgency for the implausible step of the Oslo office to track him down in person comes from a new serial killer case in Norway. His old boss Gunnar Hagen needs him badly to solve the case fast before media criticism of his division and public outcry over the extreme brutality of the deaths helps the new man at the federal security agency, Bellman, wangle designated responsibility for all murders out of the Ministry of Justice. The potential demise of his old department is not what motivates Harry to return with Kaja; it’s the news she shares about the impending death of his own father. Eventually the puzzle of the case and the increasing body count from the killer that moves Harry back into action. And the competition between departments becomes less of a bore to Harry (and the reader) when Bellman begins carrying out dirty tricks and creative blackmail against Harry to get his way. Eventually, the grisly murder of a female MP ups the pressure so much that he chooses to force Harry to work for him directly. Not to worry, as Harry has his ways of slipping this bridle and wreaking some payback.

I refrain from any details of the case itself and the line of promising suspects investigated. I can share some hints about the scope of the efforts. It will take Harry on a dangerous trip to the Republic of the Congo to find the origins of a bizarre weapon used in some of the murders, a fiendish device called “King Leopold’s Apple”. Another trip there later in the book will put him Another lead is the discovery that at least some of the victims were together one evening at a remote rude mountain lodge for cross-country skiers. One of Harry’s hairiest brushes with death comes when an attempt to trap the killer there gets him, Kaya, and another officer buried in an avalanche. His extreme efforts to save their lives involves a terrible moral choice, and more scars to his sole. I can also reveal that Kaja makes a great partner for Harry and a burgeoning love interest, though not one to threaten his abiding goal to get Rakel back.

All in all, this 8th entry of ten in the series is among the best of them. One could complain that it is too long (670 pages), overly complex, and too dependent on implausible elements and surprising turns of events. But for the most part, these aspects are par for the course. These books are popular despite such limitations. Harry’s struggles against the evil ones among humanity and his compelling fight for self-respect and loyalty to friends and family are what we crave, and his story plays out on a complex social canvas. Norway, one of the most progressive showcases for an egalitarian society among nations, is shown to beset by the same major ills as the rest of the developed nations—people falling through the cracks or oppressed by human greed, racism, discriminatory attitudes against immigrants, police corruption, child abuse, and the bad karma of the past of European colonialism abroad. No wonder some twisted people emerge and our ongoing need for a courageous hero like Hole to bring them to justice by harnessing his special understanding of the dark side of human nature. As with classic noir, it depends on your taste whether you will find the read uplifting as I do or depressing from the subjects and crimes the story dwells on.


Nesbo as posted on his Goodreads page. He seems to have lost his hairless, punkish look. In the past he had less hair For want of much description, I imaging Harry looks like this.

Great review. I read the first few before I retired but then just got busy and haven't picked them up for quite awhile. I'm devoting the summer to the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr but your review has inspired me to take up with Harry once I'm done.

I really liked Harry Hole as a character. I gave this one 4 stars as well.

Glad you share my love of the Kerr series. I'm saving a few for a rainy day.

Sushicat wrote: "I really liked Harry Hole as a character. I gave this one 4 stars as well."
One limitation, aside from his depressions, is his lack of humor. Almost every detective since Chandler's Marlow has a sarcastic streak. He does indulge in irony at least.

You are reminding me that I need to get back to reading this series.