The Redeemer

After reading a tough book like Azadi, I like something lighter – either a frothy romance or a dark crime fiction. After my dismal experience with romance lately, I decided crime might be a better option.

Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series is generally a safe option for me. I wouldn’t call them excellent, but they are solid crime thrillers that I can get through within a couple of days, and work as a palate cleanser of sorts – between serious reads.

About the Book

Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. A gunshot cuts through the music and the bitter cold: one of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range.

Harry Hole—the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and worst civil servant—has little to work with: no suspect, no weapon, and no motive.

But Harry’s troubles will multiply. As the search closes in, the killer becomes increasingly desperate, and Harry’s chase takes him to the most forbidden corners of the former Yugoslavia.

Yet it’s when he returns to Oslo that he encounters true darkness: among the homeless junkies and Salvationists, eagerly awaiting a savior to deliver them from misery—whether he brings new life or immediate death.

My Review

This book lived up to all my expectations for the most part. There was a sluggish start (which I put down to the fact that I don’t read these books in order, and so have little interest in Hole’s personal life). However, once the investigation starts going, the book really ups the pace.

This book is not a complete mystery. It’s more like an action thriller of a cat and mouse chase between the hero (Harry Hole) and the redeemer (the villain).

These kind of stories tend to run a little clichéd, but The Redeemer makes it interesting by providing a decent backstory for the villain. I liked the little segues into wartime Yugoslavia, and the glimpses into the psyche of people damaged by the war.

Overall, it was a nice book. I wouldn’t say it was a fabulous, must-read thriller of the year, but it was entertaining and gripping. If you’re already a fan of this series, picking up The Redeemer should be a no-brainer. If you’ve never read a Jo Nesbo book, it might be hard to get invested in the series with this one. May I suggest The Leopard (more gripping), or The Bat (first book in the series) instead?