The Cockroaches

December 15, 2013
With the publication of this second novel in the Harry Hole series, all 10 Hole novels are now available in the U.S. It's disconcerting for fans to read the series out of order (we know what demons await the beleaguered Harry), but, that aside, this is a compelling, hard-edged thriller that can stand on its own. It wasn't until the third novel, Redbreast (2007), that the series took on its classic Scandinavian noir feel; in the opener (The Bat, 2013), Hole was sent to Australia to solve a crime involving a Norwegian, and here he's on the road again, this time to Thailand, where the Norwegian ambassador has been found dead in a Bangkok brothel. The plot is satisfyingly twisty, with Harry wandering through the city's notorious red-light district in search of clues and tempted by the booze and drugs that will derail him throughout the series. But we also see both Harry's almost Holmesian flair for deductive reasoning and the sensitivity that makes him vulnerable. Don't look to the Scandinavians for read-alikes this time; rather, try John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep series, also set in Bangkok's morally ambiguous demimonde.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)