“Looking back, the process of coming up with the Lord of Dreams seems less like an act of creation than one of sculpture: as if he were already waiting, grave and patient, inside a block of white marble, and all I needed to do was chip away at everything that wasn’t him.”—Neil Gaiman in the Afterword of Preludes and Nocturnes I really shouldn’t have been worried that this book, and (hopefully) this series, wasn’t going to stand the test of time. I was blown away, […]
Doubt is faith’s shadow
Harry Hole, who has always been a character with a wide swath of gray area when it comes to right and wrong, is seemingly headed down a bad path by the end of this, the 6th in the series. The review QUITE spoilerific, so proceed with caution. The set-up is this: at a Salvation Army summer camp back in the nineties, an unnamed girl is raped in an outdoor toilet. She never reports it, fearing the stern heirarchy and what the accusation would do to […]
The Big Thirst (Or, What’s with all the 5’s?)
Jo Nesbo is back in fine form in this installment of the Harry Hole series. Harry can’t convince his boss that Tom Waaler is the notorious arms dealer known as The Prince and in fact the termination papers have been sent to higher ups, awaiting approval. Not surprisingly, Harry goes off the wagon again in another self-destructive spiral. When Waaler gets wind of Harry’s investigation, he has the hubris to confront Harry directly and even offer him a job in his organization since his career is […]
Revenge is basically the foundation of civilization, Harry
Harry is working on a bank robbery that ended in the death of one of the tellers. While he and his new partner Beate Lonn work the case, more robberies take place. They have got their work cut out for them. Elsewhere in Harry’s life, Rakel and Oleg are in Moscow. Oleg’s father (a Russian professor) has sued for custody and it’s not looking good for Rakel. Harry has been walking the straight and narrow, both in terms of alcohol and staying faithful to Rakel, […]