Reviews

I managed to read this one out of order & now so many things in The Snowman made better sense. Some huge personal betrayals at the end. The usual twists and turns & such poor life decisions…

flutter_bye's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

checkplease's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“The Devil’s Star” was a tough act to follow, as that book was tight and expertly plotted. “The Redeemer,” by contrast feels like it could have used some editing. At over 500 pages, the book doesn’t really get going until the halfway point, suddenly getting catalyzed by two gruesome events. My problem with these wasn’t necessarily the gore, but that they leapt out of nowhere, with one (an incident of sexual violence) relying on an unlikely twist of fate. It then passed with little ramification, which marked it as existing merely existing for shock value.

There are so many characters and so many interwoven timelines that the reader is left disoriented for much of the book: Who is this now? Where are we? While that’s what Nesbo is going for, it tips into excess. And when he devotes a page to providing character details for a civil servant behind a desk who only appears in one scene, I wanted someone to tell Mr Nesbo to just get on with it. (And I’m a pretty patient reader.)

However, the back quarter of the book is thrilling, with just the kind of race-against-time pacing you want in a novel like this. The ending plays with notions of morality and evolves a central relationship in the series in intriguing ways. And the character of Harry Hole remains inimitable, even if I always picture him in my head using Nesbo’s author photo as my guide. Looking forward to “The Snowman” next, since I know that’s one of the lauded books in the series.