The Redeemer

March 25, 2013
The first chapter of Nesbø’s highly suspenseful sixth Harry Hole thriller introduces 17-year-old Robert Karlsen and his year older brother, Jon, who in 1991 are cadets at a Salvation Army retreat in the Norwegian countryside, where a 14-year-old girl is sexually assaulted. In the next chapter, 22 years later, detective Hole is winding up the investigation of a drug-related murder in Oslo. The main action begins when a Serbian hit man, Cristo Stankic, shoots Robert on a crowded city street, though his intended target was Jon—and that’s when the pace really picks up. As the title suggests, the search for redemption is on—redemption through violence. The deeply flawed Hole is his familiar self: difficult and disrespectful, brilliant and intuitive. At times the book feels padded with lengthy asides and banter, but the primary narrative, told in powerful prose, never fails to grip. Series fans should note that later entries have already appeared in the U.S., most recently Phantom (2012). Announced first printing of 150,000.

Starred review from March 15, 2013
Rarely does a mystery novel succeed on so many levels, as the intricate plotting explores psychological and theological dimensions that go deeper than standard notions of good and evil. As a literary stylist as well as a master of mystery, Nesbo (Phantom, 2012, etc.) has established himself as the king of Scandinavian crime fiction, a genre that became an international sensation in the wake of the posthumous success of Stieg Larrson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (and its sequels and film adaptations). Yet, tracing the publishing trail of Nesbo and his series featuring the intuitive alcoholic Harry Hole requires some detective work of its own. This is actually the novel that precedes The Snowman (2011), the work that launched Nesbo internationally as a best-selling author, and the sixth Harry Hole novel overall (the first two have yet to be published in the United States). It may also be the best, or at least the richest, in its evocation of a sinister plot involving the Salvation Army during the Oslo Christmas season. The rape of one Salvation Army teen by another sows the seeds for all the complications that follow, yet it takes most of the novel for the reader to be certain of the identities of the rapist and victim, as the very notion of identity defies easy resolution throughout. With its themes of forgiveness and redemption, and the difference between the two, the novel presents every one of its characters as a flawed human being, unable to separate into categories of good guys and bad guys. In fact, the title character is a shadowy contract murderer, and redemption also serves as a euphemism for a junkie's fix. As one initially peripheral character who proves crucial tells Hole, "You've discovered that guilt is not as black-and-white as you thought when you decided to become a policeman and redeem humankind from evil. As a rule there's little evil but a lot of human frailty. Many sad stories you can recognize in yourself." Ultimately, a story with a lot of pieces to its puzzle hurtles toward a climax that is not merely sad, but tragic. Perhaps not the best novel for a Nesbo initiate, but those with an affinity for the darkest and most literary crime fiction will want to get here as soon as they can.

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May 1, 2013

Do not expect this book to continue the story line from Nesbo's 2012 best seller, The Phantom (ninth in the Harry Hole series.) Fans will have to wait longer to discover the fate of Harry after his shocking encounter with a murder suspect. Instead, this story, published three years and as many books earlier (2009) involves the murder of a young Salvation Army employee shot at point-blank range during a Christmas season street performance. Bad weather grounds the gunman in Oslo and gives him time to realize, after reading news reports, that he has killed the wrong man. Excellent plotting, lots of twists, deception, and a comprehensible villain contribute to the rapid pacing as the iconic Nordic detective and his colleagues race to find and stop the assassin before he kills again. This could almost be considered a police procedural except that Hole rarely follows procedure even when commanded to do so by his new supervisor. VERDICT Recommended for the many fans of Nesbo as well as for readers who appreciate maverick, intuitive detectives who fight the system almost as often as they fight crime.--Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Nesb's Harry Hole novels have not appeared in the U.S. in the order in which they were written, and given the stunning events detailed in Phantom (2012), that disjointed chronology may prove disconcerting for readers of The Redeemer. Still, it is a fine crime novel. Redemption of one kind or another has always been on Harry's mind (his preferred method for finding it is usually in a whiskey bottle), but here the theme encompasses nearly every character in the book, from various Salvation Army soldiers with multiple secrets in their closets, through an assassin hired to kill one of those soldiers, and on to Harry's former boss, Mller. The freezing Oslo winter nicely parallels the icy righteousness ( the virtue of the lazy and the visionless ) that drives most of these would-be redeemers. The thin line separating crooks and cops in all of the intensely character-focused Hole novels has never been thinner or more treacherous than it is here. As Mller puts it, It's chance and nuance that separate the hero from the villain. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Nesb's books have sold 15 million copies in 47 languages. A 150,000 first printing will get his latest U.S. release off and running.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)