The Redbreast (2000)

Probably 3.5 stars. Harry Hole is a relentless cop, who is hailed as a hero for shooting someone from Secret Service, who he thought was an assassin. He gets very involved in a case where a war veteran goes on a murder spree. The highlight for me were the therepeutic phone messages left for his closest friend and murdered ex-cop partner columinating in the "no longer in service" message. ( )

Ive heard Nesbo mentioned many, usually in comparison with Steig Larsson which seems to be unavoidable if you write crime fiction and are from a Scandinavian country. That comparison is enough to put me off, not because I dislike Larsson, in fact I loved the Millennium Trilogy. I find it to be lazy on the part of book publishers but I guess publicity is the name of the game and Larsson is the hottest of the last few years.

After a little bit of digging I found that Nesbo has a lot a favourable reviews and so decided to give him a go. Problem number 1. The first two books in the Harry Hole series have not been translated into English. That put me off a little as I like to read books in the order in which they are written. Many reviews said that in their opinion it didn't matter so I bit the bullet and dived in.

Firstly, I regret reading the blurb on the back of the book, it has a HUGE spoiler in it that I felt really annoyed at. For the first 100 pages or so I felt it was just plodding along nicely. Nothing huge seemed to be happening but the writing was engaging enough and it felt like it was setting the platform for what was to come. Initially the story flicks back and forth between 1944 during war time and 1999 in Oslo. It is an effect that Nesbo puts to good use although it did feel a little over used after a while.

After about 200 pages I was hooked, the characters of Harry and Ellen are instantly likeable and I felt myself urging them on more and more throughout the book. Once I had reached the first big plot moment (the one spoilt by the blurb) I just had to finish it and so read it over the space of the next day and a half. The story moves along fast and feels about the right length instead of needlessly long or missing important details.

I only have 2 slight down points on the book which made it a 4 star (4.5 really) and not 5 star book for me. The first is that a lot of characters come along in quick succession which made me flick back once of twice to check who was who. It doesn't get over the top but it's not normally something I have a problem with. The second is that Harry Hole is a brilliant but down on his luck detective who is a big drinker, frequents dive bars who develops a love interest who should be out of his league. To me this feels quite over-used in the crime genre but somehow I still really liked the character.

In the inevitable comparison I can't say if I prefer Larsson or Nesbo but Nesbo's writing is feels of a better standard to me but none of the characters quite hit the heights of Lisbeth Salander. Hole's detective work feels a whole lot more natural though when compared to Blomkvist.

I really enjoyed this books and have already decided I need to find out what happens next so I need to go book shopping again. Ive got a feeling I am really going to enjoy the series. ( )

First-rate mystery. Interesting characters, totally engaging plot - what's not to like? ( )

I started listening to this a while ago and couldn't get into it. I'm glad I gave it another try. It's very good.

It alternates between 1944-45 and 1999-2000, and there are a lot of characters. I sometimes found it hard to keep track of them, but that's a downside of audiobooks; you can't just flip back a few pages to remind yourself of who someone is. However, I was ultimately able to get through it without too many issues in that regard.

Harry is not your typical curmudgeonly jaded police detective. He's an alcoholic, but mostly has it under control. I found him to be quite likable, though he smokes too much. ;)

This is the third book in the series, but I didn't feel that I was missing anything by not reading the first two. There were mentions of previous exploits, but I didn't think it affected this story at all.

I don't know how many books are in this series, and I'm too lazy to look right now, but there are a couple of definite loose ends in this one that I'm sure are addressed in later book. I'm not sure whether I'll read any more of these, but that's due to the overwhelming number of books I have to read rather than a statement on the quality of this book.

The narrator of the audio was very good, and navigated all of the Norwegian and German names with ease.

I'd like to thank Molly for recommending this one! ( )

To Richard 05/02/21 ( )