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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's murder month! Last person to murder someone gets stripped naked and thrown in the river!
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another excellent book in the Harry Hole series. It started off rather slow, but that's Nesbo's M.O. There's a lot of detail about something, and it takes a while for Harry to make an appearance, but it all makes sense in the end. I do wonder how much Harry can go through (he really is like the 6 million dollar man with all his titanium parts), but the book ends with a hell of a cliffhanger, so I look forward to another in the series. Hopefully I can catch up on the early ones in the meantime.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Just when you thought the Harry Hole series couldn't get any darker...this book comes along. Nesbo delves deeper into the bad cops explored in earlier books, as well as examining Harry's own darker desires and decisions. Nesbo always succeeds in scaring me with his careful use of many characters' limited POV, setting up the reader to think one thing when it really is another.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Probably the best in the series, so far. (I've said this twice before now, d'oh).
Just when he gets out; they suck Harry back in.
Just when he gets out; they suck Harry back in.
Jo Nesbo is occasionally a bit on the gruesome side for me but this book pulls together so many characters and is so well plotted that it held me all the way through. It does help to read the series from the beginning to get to know the characters and references in this book. I love that Katrine and Beate figured so prominently and Rakel has several wonderful scenes. The politics and police work are well-woven together with personal bits and pieces. The puzzle is strong and the suspense good. And of course there are just enough strings left at the end to keep us longing for the next installment.
This is my first Nesbo, and probably my last. Maybe that's what happens when you don't start at the beginning of a series. My main complaint is that a number scenes employed the kind of gimmick used in B-movies to build suspense--someone holding a knife is coming up behind the little boy--oh, no!--and then it turns out it's his mother offering to butter his toast. I found these fake-suspense ploys irritating. Another complaint is that some aspects were quite unrealistic--Can anyone survive a brutal beating followed by a pipe bomb explosion? One can expect unrealistic situations in mystery-thrillers, but this was ridiculous. Next, the interior monologue of the killer sounded so much like that of other killers in other books, that sometimes I felt I had read this book previously. Apparently all Scandinavian homicidal maniacs think alike. Finally,(and this is a personal peeve)the scruffy male anti-hero's girlfriend is a gorgeous, educated, smart, sexy woman. Where do we ever find an unkempt, neurotic detective-hero with a woman who's his physical match? Not here.
It was entertaining, and a fast read, but in the end, this detective yarn didn't rise above "OK".
It was entertaining, and a fast read, but in the end, this detective yarn didn't rise above "OK".