REVIEW: The Redeemer (Harry Hole No.4) by Jo Nesbø and Translated by Don Bartlett

THE REDEEMER (Harry Hole No.4) by Jo Nesbø and trans­lated by Don Bartlett is apart of a series and is pub­lished by Ran­dom House (UK).

Nor­we­gian crime nov­el­ist Jo Nesbø has penned another page-turner. This man is sim­ply bril­liant when it comes to plot­ting and characterizations.

There’s not one bor­ing scene in his books. None. Nada. Nesbø‘s thrillers are appeal­ing to me for sev­eral rea­sons but the two top rea­sons why I like his books are that they are set in Oslo and that his sto­ries are char­ac­ter dri­ven. Yes, of course I tripped up over Nor­we­gian names but that was not a dis­trac­tion nor a problem.

The series is told in third per­son and fol­lows Oslo Inspec­tor, Harry Hole, a man who chain smokes, drinks and likes to buck author­ity. Hole has a lot of per­sonal demons to con­tend with and he’s not a very socia­ble guy. He’s more of a loner. His peers may not like him much but Harry is one of the best police offi­cers in Oslo.

In “The Redeemer,” Harry Hole has to hunt down a pro­fes­sional con­tract killer who is tar­get­ing a sol­dier work­ing for the Sal­va­tion Army in Oslo. This story is full of explo­sive secrets and if you’ve read this author before, you can be pre­pared to “expect the unex­pected” because this book is even more tightly plot­ted than Neme­sis (another book in the series I rated a B+).

The one thing I like about a vil­lain is a smart one. Nesbø‘s vil­lains are not so eas­ily char­ac­ter­ized in black or white. Nah, it’s not that sim­ple. Sure, you can hate them for their hor­ri­ble acts, but every char­ac­ter in here has a story. The vil­lain in here, who hap­pens to be a war refugee, has a story, too. A painful one that involves war (the Croatian/Serb con­flict), the loss of a father and the loss of a com­man­der and friend. The vil­lain gained my sym­pa­thy. Imag­ine that.

The vil­lain in here is also dri­ven and fear­less. He just will not stop. He is referred to rev­er­ently as the “mali spa­sitelj” aka “the lit­tle redeemer” because when he was a kid, he exploded twelve tanks when the Yugoslav army tried to take over Vuko­var. Of course when the Serbs took over the city they tried to find him but didn’t. For all any­one knows, the redeemer was a myth. Not real.

I’m not all that well versed in for­eign affairs so I found any back­ground the author wanted to share about the Croa­t­ians vs Serbs war quite inter­est­ing. I didn’t know all that much, as far as the inner work­ings of The Sal­va­tion Army out­side of their pietism and pro­vid­ing refuge to war veterans/refugees. Many of the char­ac­ters in here are deeply involved with the Sal­va­tion Army. Much of the story is told in part about a rivalry between two broth­ers. It’s also a rivalry for power within the orga­ni­za­tion itself.

The story is multi-faceted as it involves betrayal, redemp­tion and blood vengeance. The story starts off omi­nously enough with the rape of a 14 year old girl. The story then moves for­ward to the present where a Croa­t­ian refugee is hired as a con­tract killer who blun­ders badly when he takes out the wrong tar­get. How could this hap­pen? I’m not telling. I will say that he stays in Oslo to cor­rect the mistake.

But enough of the plot, let’s talk about Harry. After all, he is the star of this series. At Police HQ there’s been some staff changes. Old super­vi­sor out, new super­vi­sor in. Since I didn’t read the book prior to this one (The Devil’s Star), all I can say is that a lot hap­pened in that book.

Harry took out a cor­rupt set of cops that included a star detec­tive who labeled him­self the “prince.” As far as Harry is con­cerned, though, where there’s a “prince there’s a King.” Mean­while, Harry gets part­nered with Jack Halver­son to track down the con­tract killer who is hunt­ing a Sal­va­tion army offi­cer. The two men, Halver­son and Harry, reluc­tantly become friends.

The end­ing is as usual: edge of your seat, can’t turn the pages fast enough sus­pense­ful. All these loose threads that Nesbø leaves dan­gling through­out the story is some­how neatly tied together pretty tight. I hon­estly didn’t see this one com­ing — the twist at the end. It places Harry in a dif­fer­ent light for me.

There’s a lot more of the story that I left out as Nesbø‘s sto­ries are not so easy to dis­cuss with­out spoil­ing. I just know that I love his work and that no amount of words from me can do this book jus­tice. If you’re a mys­tery reader look­ing for a page-turner then look no fur­ther than this book or any book by this author. After read­ing two of his books this man has impressed the hell out of me as his sto­ries are so intri­cate and so com­plex and so rich. I love it.

Also, Harry Hole makes a great anti­hero. Sure, he is jus­tice for all but is fully aware of the lim­i­ta­tions of the law and is some­what jaded. I so enjoy the psy­chol­o­gist, Stale Aune, who assists him on his cases. His insight into the crim­i­nal mind is inter­est­ing and thought-provoking. This para­graph struck a chord and admit­tedly, it’s not the best part of the book to quote but nonethe­less here it is,

“An angry, unsta­ble con­tract killer? Well, I sup­pose there are unsta­ble air­plane pilots and unsta­ble man­agers of nuclear power sta­tions, too. Not every­one is in a job they ought to be in, you know.

“I’ll drink to that.”

As for the vio­lence in this series thus far, it varies but most of it is has been off to the side or low key. But then I read Karin Slaugh­ter and Chelsea Cain whose vio­lence swings between graphic to very graphic to off the chart, OMG how the hell did they do that type of vio­lence. Sigh.

THE REDEEMER is the fourth book in the Harry Hole series. For once in my life I’m going to strongly sug­gest you start this series (if you’re inter­ested) with the first book, THE REDBREAST. My grade, solid A. I’m well into the third Harry Hole book, THE DEVIL’S STAR. Sorry to say, it’s not avail­able new in the US. UK only.

The Harry Hole series order is as fol­lows: The Red­breast, Neme­sis, The Devil’s Star and The Redeemer. Only two of these books are avail­able in ebook at your favorite etailer. Edited to add for CORRECTION: I had orig­i­nally stated in the review that Halver­son was a super­vi­sor of Harry’s but he was not. Rune Ivarrson was Harry’s super­vi­sor. Sorry for the confusion.