The Redbreast (2000)

7/16/22 to 7/22/22 interruption in reading due to lost book.

Rauðbrystingur er þriðja sagan um Harry Hole, norska heltekna morðlöggu og vel virkan alkóhólista. Einhverra hluta vegna er þessi saga önnur sagan sem þýdd er yfir á íslensku og ég veit ei hvers vegna bók númer tvö var ekki þýdd en kannski vita aðrir mér fróðari ástæðuna.
Í þessari sögu klúðrar Hole feitt þegar Bandaríkjaforseti mætir í Noregsheimsókn og er fluttur til í starfi og settur á bak við skrifborð. Þar rekst hann hins vegar á vísbendingar um að í undirbúningi séu eitt eða fleiri morð og allt bendir til verðandi morðingi sé hermaður frá síðari heimsstyrjöldinni.
Ágætis spenna og plott. ( )

I'd waited to read this one with bated breath. There was so much riding on this book. It had been praised to the skies, and it was the one that would make me decide whether or not to complete the series. I have a fetish: I complete the series I start. So, I started this book with with great anticipation.

I have completed the series now.

It was a good book. Compelling, too. However, I liked The Snowman and Phantom much better later. More than the mystery itself, I found myself drawn into the subplots of Waaler and Ellen, Harry and Rakel. Once again, someone's death drives Harry to drinking. At the time, I thought that Nesbo is overdoing the whole death and drinking thing. Later, I realized it's just a recurrent theme. Harry's an alcoholic. The reader will just have to get used to that.

As far as The Redbreast is concerned, it's a good story. It follows two timelines: WW II and the current time. Both the stories are linked beautifully by the end. There are enough twists to give any mystery lover her money's worth. ( )

Unexpected twists and turns. I would have liked Rakel to be a bit more clever, to avoid the situation she finds herself in. A few loose ends were left, that I expect to be built upon in the next novel. Harry Hole is a great character. I don't read a lot of thrillers, but I enjoy Nesbo's work. I'm of Norwegian ancestry, and the cultural, historical, and setting tidbits are much appreciated. ( )

If this had been my first Jo Nesbo novel, it would have been my last. Still not sure, out of the three or four names of the "bad guy" which was his real one. Fine book for a Norwegian who's quite familiar with the WWiI fighting in Norway and likes to take notes. ( )