Thursday, May 26, 2016

#26: The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Oslo cop Harry Hole is a fish out of water in the Australian Outback, tasked to find out who murdered a minor Norwegian celebrity (and salvage his career at the same time) in Jo Nesbo's initial novel in this crackling crime series, The Bat.

A good mystery, but also interesting as a study of a very flawed protagonist (and almost equally flawed supporting characters) as well as perspectives on Australian life.

Nesbo was already a big star in Norway when his newer books began to come out in English, so publishers have scrambled to shore up the gaps in his bibliography.  In this post-Stieg Larsson era, I recommend Nesbo and Arnaldur Indriðason to anyone trying to fill the void after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I found this in a used English-language bookstore in Rome and read it on the long flight home.

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