It’s two years since the events in The Red Breast and Harry Hole, the tall, alcoholic detective has a new work partner – a young woman with the ability to remember faces with uncanny precision. It’s this ability that comes in very handy as Harry is deployed to solve a bank robbery that ends with the shooting of one of the employees. Distracted by goings on his personal life (Rakel, who we met in the last book, is in Russia fighting for custody of her son, Oleg), including the arrival of an old flame on the scene, Anna, Hole is completely intolerant of the man assigned to lead the case – an irritating superior determined to put square Hole in a round box. Hole manages to pull strings and work the investigation independently, which is just as well because, when his former lover is found dead, Hole is convinced that, not only is her death not a suicide, but that the two murders are somehow related. With steely determination, he plunges into the dual investigations and learns the meaning of vengeance.
Not only does this investigation become personal in ways Hole could never have foreseen, but it puts his life and the lives of those he cares about on the line.
This is yet another absolutely gripping tale from Nesbo. What I particularly love about the two books I’ve read so far is that, while as readers we get to enjoy the intricate cases and the twists and turns in the plots, there’s a thread that’s carried over from The Red Breast that thickens in this novel. While it’s not yet resolved, the tension and angst it creates is thrilling… you long for justice to prevail, but with Nesbo, justice is not always fair or balanced.
A brilliant read that lovers of crime, thrillers and just damn fine writing and a fast-paced, gripping story, will delight in.