Reviews

This is the 9th book (or so) about former detective Harry Hole, a sort of Norwegian John Rebus (in as much as he's a smoking alcoholic with authority issues). Two books prior to this book he walked away from the police, after a particularly interesting case, and has been enticed back twice now, once by his former boss, and once by a friend (in this book) to investigate a drugs murder.

Most of the story isn't bad (Hole does battle with a local drugs baron -even if the new "in drug" has a silly name), but the way that Nesbo is wrapping up his stories are becoming increasingly daft. It's almost as if he's got this great set up, but doesn't know how to draw all the threads together at the end, so forces a dumb ending onto the story to bring it to a close. This happened in the previous book, and it happened again in this book, and that irritates me.

The other thing about this book that irritated me is that I'm becoming less convinced that Hole is a good person (even if he's a good cop). The endings of the two books prior to this one have left me asking "Oh come on really, would he really do that?" and this book is no exception.

Incidentally, try to read the books in order. The series will flow better that way.

lonelycompass's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

ellarymt's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

jgnchwalinska's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5

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