The Bat by Jo Nesbo
Mar. 20th, 2015 04:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Harry is out of his depth.
Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian girl on a gap year in Sydney has been murdered, and Harry has been sent to Australia to assist in any way he can.
He’s not supposed to get too involved …
When the team unearths a string of unsolved murders and disappearances, nothing will stop Harry from finding out the truth. The hunt for a serial killer is on, but the murderer will only talk to Harry.
… But he might just be the next victim.
When Inger Holter, a minor Norwegian celebrity is raped and murdered in Sydney, Detective Harry Hole is sent to liaise with the Australian investigation. Harry isn’t content to sit on the side-lines, however, and he has an ally in Australian detective Andrew Kensington, who involves him in tracking through Inger’s last known movements and checking out her criminally inclined boyfriend, Evans White. It soon becomes clear that Inger is the latest in a serial killer’s long line of victims but the closer Harry and Kensington get to the truth, the closer the killer gets to them …
Jo Nesbo’s first Harry Hole novel is a decidedly mixed affair. First published in 1997 but not translated into English until 2012, the first third of the book is gripping as Harry develops a friendship with Kensington and the two start to piece together what happened to Inger. I particularly enjoyed the way Nesbo weaves Aboriginal myth stories into the text and Harry’s descriptions of Australia – notably when he has to visit a small hippy town. However the plot itself judders along in a predictable fashion (with logic at times being sacrificed for the purposes of getting to the next plot event) and despite Nesbo’s red herrings, it’s pretty obvious who the killer is while some of the deaths are signalled too far in advance. I also found Harry’s relationship with Birgitta to be rather dull, although I did enjoy the insights into Hole’s background – probably because this is the first Harry Hole novel I’ve read so it’s new to me. The denouement was, for me, just downright silly and had me rolling my eyes, but it’s testament to Nesbo’s easy writing style (together with Don Bartlett’s smooth translation) that I stayed with this until the end. Despite the faults, there was definitely enough here for me to check out the other Harry Hole novels.
One of the best elements of the book is the relationship between Kensington and Harry and I would have liked to have seen more of this than Harry’s relationship with Birgitta. Nesbo uses it to explore Australian history and mythology in a way that works well with the themes and plot of the book and feels very natural. Hole’s background with his family also fascinated me but the recovering alcoholic plot line has been done to death and plays out in a predictable way.
The Verdict:
Jo Nesbo’s first Harry Hole novel is a decidedly mixed affair. First published in 1997 but not translated into English until 2012, the first third of the book is gripping as Harry develops a friendship with Kensington and the two start to piece together what happened to Inger. I particularly enjoyed the way Nesbo weaves Aboriginal myth stories into the text and Harry’s descriptions of Australia – notably when he has to visit a small hippy town. However the plot itself judders along in a predictable fashion (with logic at times being sacrificed for the purposes of getting to the next plot event) and despite Nesbo’s red herrings, it’s pretty obvious who the killer is while some of the deaths are signalled too far in advance. I also found Harry’s relationship with Birgitta to be rather dull, although I did enjoy the insights into Hole’s background – probably because this is the first Harry Hole novel I’ve read so it’s new to me. The denouement was, for me, just downright silly and had me rolling my eyes, but it’s testament to Nesbo’s easy writing style (together with Don Bartlett’s smooth translation) that I stayed with this until the end. Despite the faults, there was definitely enough here for me to check out the other Harry Hole novels.
Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian girl on a gap year in Sydney has been murdered, and Harry has been sent to Australia to assist in any way he can.
When the team unearths a string of unsolved murders and disappearances, nothing will stop Harry from finding out the truth. The hunt for a serial killer is on, but the murderer will only talk to Harry.
When Inger Holter, a minor Norwegian celebrity is raped and murdered in Sydney, Detective Harry Hole is sent to liaise with the Australian investigation. Harry isn’t content to sit on the side-lines, however, and he has an ally in Australian detective Andrew Kensington, who involves him in tracking through Inger’s last known movements and checking out her criminally inclined boyfriend, Evans White. It soon becomes clear that Inger is the latest in a serial killer’s long line of victims but the closer Harry and Kensington get to the truth, the closer the killer gets to them …
Jo Nesbo’s first Harry Hole novel is a decidedly mixed affair. First published in 1997 but not translated into English until 2012, the first third of the book is gripping as Harry develops a friendship with Kensington and the two start to piece together what happened to Inger. I particularly enjoyed the way Nesbo weaves Aboriginal myth stories into the text and Harry’s descriptions of Australia – notably when he has to visit a small hippy town. However the plot itself judders along in a predictable fashion (with logic at times being sacrificed for the purposes of getting to the next plot event) and despite Nesbo’s red herrings, it’s pretty obvious who the killer is while some of the deaths are signalled too far in advance. I also found Harry’s relationship with Birgitta to be rather dull, although I did enjoy the insights into Hole’s background – probably because this is the first Harry Hole novel I’ve read so it’s new to me. The denouement was, for me, just downright silly and had me rolling my eyes, but it’s testament to Nesbo’s easy writing style (together with Don Bartlett’s smooth translation) that I stayed with this until the end. Despite the faults, there was definitely enough here for me to check out the other Harry Hole novels.
One of the best elements of the book is the relationship between Kensington and Harry and I would have liked to have seen more of this than Harry’s relationship with Birgitta. Nesbo uses it to explore Australian history and mythology in a way that works well with the themes and plot of the book and feels very natural. Hole’s background with his family also fascinated me but the recovering alcoholic plot line has been done to death and plays out in a predictable way.
The Verdict:
Jo Nesbo’s first Harry Hole novel is a decidedly mixed affair. First published in 1997 but not translated into English until 2012, the first third of the book is gripping as Harry develops a friendship with Kensington and the two start to piece together what happened to Inger. I particularly enjoyed the way Nesbo weaves Aboriginal myth stories into the text and Harry’s descriptions of Australia – notably when he has to visit a small hippy town. However the plot itself judders along in a predictable fashion (with logic at times being sacrificed for the purposes of getting to the next plot event) and despite Nesbo’s red herrings, it’s pretty obvious who the killer is while some of the deaths are signalled too far in advance. I also found Harry’s relationship with Birgitta to be rather dull, although I did enjoy the insights into Hole’s background – probably because this is the first Harry Hole novel I’ve read so it’s new to me. The denouement was, for me, just downright silly and had me rolling my eyes, but it’s testament to Nesbo’s easy writing style (together with Don Bartlett’s smooth translation) that I stayed with this until the end. Despite the faults, there was definitely enough here for me to check out the other Harry Hole novels.
