Nemesis
A
Harry Hole Mystery
Jo
Nesbo
Harper (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-06-165550-3 (0061655503)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-165550-0 (9780061655500)
Publication Date: January 2009
List Price: $25.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Grainy closed-circuit television footage shows a man
walking into an Oslo bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He
tells the young woman to count to twenty-five. When the robber doesn't
get his money in time, the cashier is executed, and two million
Norwegian kroner disappear without a trace. Police Detective Harry Hole
is assigned to the case.
While Hole's girlfriend is away in Russia, an old flame decides to get
in touch. Former girlfriend and struggling artist Anna Bethsen invites
Hole to dinner, and he can't resist a visit. But the evening ends in an
all too familiar way as Hole awakens with a thundering headache, a
missing cell phone, and no memory of the past twelve hours. That same
morning, Anna is found shot dead in her bed. Hole begins to receive
threatening e-mails. Is someone trying to frame him for this
unexplained death? Meanwhile, the bank robberies continue with
unparalleled savagery.
As the death toll continues to mount, Hole becomes a prime suspect in a
criminal investigation led by his longtime adversary Tom Waaler and
Waaler's vigilante police force. Racing from the cool, autumnal streets
of Oslo to the steaming villages of Brazil, Hole is determined to
absolve himself of suspicion by uncovering all the information needed
to crack both cases. But the ever-threatening Waaler is not finished
with his old archenemy quite yet.
Review:
Oslo police detective Harry Hole investigates a series of bold bank
robberies and the murder of an old flame (for which he appears to be
the prime suspect) in Nemesis, the fourth mystery in this series by Jo Nesbo (but only the second to be published in the US).
Harry is barely holding on to his job with the police department. He's
very good at what he does, but he also drinks too much. He's currently
assigned to investigate a bank robbery in which the thief not only gets
away with the cash, but kills a teller in cold blood because her
manager took too long to give it to him. Everything was captured on the
bank's security cameras, something the thief seems to use (somewhat
ironically) to his advantage. Harry subsequently meets up with Anna, an
old girlfriend; not exactly what he needs right now, but in a drunken
stupor spends the night with her, awakening in his own apartment. She's
later found dead, an apparent suicide but Harry thinks otherwise. It
soon becomes clear that Anna's death is linked to his other
investigation but every step Harry takes seems to complicate his case.
Nemesis is a strong
plot-driven crime novel, and it's apparent the author is a master in
crafting the sophisticated, interwoven plot threads that form the
foundation for the book. It's really quite amazing and very cleverly
accomplished. Little else stands out, however. Harry Hole is center
stage most of the time, but he's not much different from the dozens of
alcoholic (or recovering alcoholic) cops that have preceded him. And
other than a few mentions of snow (or melting snow), there's scant
attention paid to the setting. It could have been set in Canada or
Russia as well as Norway.
Finally, Nemesis is often not
all that easy to follow, and not only because of the intricate plot.
Most series books typically don't rely too heavily on previous entries
to provide background material, yet there seems to be a basic
assumption here that the reader is familiar with not only the character
of Harry Hole but also the environment in which he works, the people
with whom he associates, and the circumstances that led to him being
where he is today. To be sure, none of this information is strictly
necessary to enjoy Nemesis
but there's a sense that something is lacking, that the book isn't
nearly as rich or deep or well-rounded as it could have been. Given
that the book is nearly 500 pages in length, a few extra paragraphs
here and there to fill in the gaps wouldn't have been excessive in the
least.
Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing a copy of Nemesis for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Have you read Nemesis? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series available in the US ...
The Redbreast (3rd in series)
Harper (Hardcover), December 2007
ISBN-10: 0-06-113399-X (006113399X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-113399-2 (9780061133992)
Nemesis (4th in series)
Harper (Hardcover), January 2009
ISBN-10: 0-06-165550-3 (0061655503)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-165550-0 (9780061655500)
Omnimystery keywords for Nemesis ...
Location(s) referenced: Oslo, Norway, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
