Knife is the 12th installment of Norwegian Jo Nesbø's excellent crime series, set in Oslo, and featuring police detective Harry Hole. Harry's on-off relationship with Rakel, with her son Oleg, and his serious issues with addiction - mostly alcohol but occasionally opium - have punctuated this series since it began. The books paint a picture of a tortured character, always just inches away from downing another bottle of Jim Beam, forever pushing things to the limit so that his relationship with Rakel will end, so he can prove to himself once again that he never deserved to have her. Harry seems incapable of happiness, of steadiness, of walking a straight line in his life. He's a brilliant detective, gifted with a preternatural intuition, and the gift of noticing the tiny details that others miss. However, Harry's career with the Oslo police keeps tanking as his alcoholism and his devil-may-care lack of interest in ethical police work frustrate and enrage his co-workers and his superiors. The tall, craggy detective has very few allies by time this 12th book begins.

One of the people he's alienated, again, is Rakel, who has thrown him out. We don't know why (yet), but readers following Harry's career will know that he's done something unforgiveable yet again. The shock that follows Nesbø's establishment of Harry's current state is that Rakel is dead. Murdered. Stabbed. Harry, of course, is chief suspect. Even Harry's not sure what he did that night as he was in an alcoholic blackout and can't remember anything. What Harry does know is that he's going to establish his guilt or his innocence beyond a doubt, and thus a grim and fascinating story begins.

Nesbø was a good storyteller from the beginning. His first Harry Hole novel, The Bat, was thin, and set in Australia. It was a good book, and it caught my interest because I was very attracted to Harry's character, capable of love and of murder, a man who was neither black nor white, nor grey, but a terrifying mixture of all three. He was a deeply unstable man, but charming, and so I've followed him for many, many years. Nesbø has become an extremely gifted writer, capable of detailed character description, intricate plotting, and able to share Harry's despair-ridden life with his readers. Knife was an excellent book. It was gripping, terribly sad, powered by bleakness, and hopelessness, and fear. It could be read by someone new to the series, but those who have followed Nesbø's series will enjoy it most, this revisit to the darkest sides of Harry's life. ( )

Harry Hole book # 12

Hole is a legend in the Oslo police force and is notorious for his heavy drinking and by now his wife Rakel had enough and has kicked out, Harry is on his own.

“Knife”, is another dark twisted mystery by Nesbo. The opening scenes involve an old man at a hunting shop, a gruesome sexual assault and Hole waking up with blood on himself after a drunken night at a bar but even before he sobers up, he is hit by a tornado Rakel has been murdered. His colleagues want him to stay out of the case because they can’t rule him out as her killer. The preliminary evidence points to Svein Finne, a long career rapist and murderer. Staying out of this case is not an option,“ The only thing Harry can do is investigate murders and drink”.....and he will do just that....

This story takes most of 450 pages or so in order to tell us how these moments fit into the puzzle, so be patient it is a long and heavy read.....in the final 100 pages the many disparate threads are so cleverly pulled that it is hard to stop reading. “Knife” is real Nesbo and this story has everything I have come to expect by him: a layered plot, a gritty atmosphere, an immerse pacing, plenty of red herrings and our beloved trouble detective. This has to be Nesbo’s darkest story and the most emotionally affective. It is told with a razor- sharp prose and is populated by fully shaped psychologically believable characters.

Knife is brutal, raw and nerve wrecking. ( )

It's kind of amazing that there's never a single character in these books that I even remotely like. So bleak. In the wrong mood it's intolerable and in the right, fascinating. ( )

Most likely the best Harry book yet ( )

Oh, Nesbo's taken us all on one hell of a journey with Harry Hole, the finest detective in Oslo. Knowing that Knife is, in all probability, Hole's last book lends it a poignant note. Thestory opens with a bang! Harry's been dumped by Rakel. Whaaat! Why did that happen? After all these years of putting up with his alcoholism, intensity, even the Snowman, Rakel gives him the boot. Things resolve a bit and, then, you're hit with another Wham! Rakel's dead. Whaaaat!The book is amazingly written with Harry focussing so much on Sveine he misses the clues in front of him. And the end. Oh. It's a whopper. I did not see that coming at all. Sweet, innocent Holm. Nooooo! Though the story does make sense. But why, why did Nesbo do this? He does leave us with a few potential prospects to choose for Harry, but I wanted him to be with Rakel forever. Oh, well. Tragedies do tend to stay with us. I love you, Harry Hole. ( )