The Bat
A Detective Hole Novel (1)
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3.8 • 737 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole is now streaming on Netflix • In the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the murder.
The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1997, Nesb 's inaugural Harry Hole novel, finally translated into English, takes the Oslo homicide detective to Sydney, Australia, where he displays all the brilliance and angst that Harry's fans have come to expect, after reading Phantom and other later entries already available in English. Harry, who's helping the Sydney police investigate the murder of pretty 23-year-old Inger Holter, a Norwegian citizen and minor TV celebrity, partners with a bluff, friendly cop of Aboriginal descent, Andrew Kensington. Still haunted by past personal and professional troubles, he begins a new relationship with another Scandinavian expat, Swedish barmaid Birgitta Enquist, while evidence emerges linking Inger's death to a serial killer. Despite some awkward prose, this debut effort shows Nesb as an already confident genre craftsman, striking sparks from the familiar genre material of Harry's fish-out-of-water experience in a foreign land and odd-couple pairing with a mismatched partner. Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).
Customer Reviews
The Bat
Enjoyed the endless banter between friends.
Couldn’t finish
Once the detective starts drinking, the book becomes hard to follow. Jackson Lamb can pull it off - drinking all the time and still being sharp and entertaining, but Harry Hole is a boring drunk.
Disappointing
Too many long, descriptive drawn-out paragraphs. He’s not John D McDonald and this character is not Travis McGee. I may try the second book because maybe they were just trying to lay the foundation of the character. But I was disappointed.