From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian Nesbø (
The Devil's Star) spins a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality. But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it's up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches. Perfectly paced and painfully suspenseful, this crime novel illuminates not only Norway's alleged Nazi ties but also its present skinhead subculture. Readers will delight in Hole, a laconic hero as doggedly stubborn as Connelly's Harry Bosch, and yet with a prickly appeal all his own.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Review
Norway's finest crime writer...Nesbo entwines a Second World War ghost story with a modern hunt for an assassin in a clever and entertaining way that teases and taunts to the very end...Nesbo clearly demonstrates his skill at executing expertly-crafted, well-paced thrillers that he sustains to the very end in a compelling fashion...as first novels go, The Redbreast and The Devil's Star are as accomplished as any reader is likely to experience Daily Express It requires some skilled plotting, but Nesbo brings it off, and Harry, with his quirky sense of humour, is a likeable hero despite his many flaws Sunday Telegraph A complex, utterly captivating story Evening Standard Exciting, witty, melancholy and thought-provoking Daily Telegraph A complicated story of passion, lost love, betrayal and murder The Times Scary...culminates in a nail-biting episode with overtones of The Day of the Jackal Independent A page-turner you won't want to put down Time Out