The Redbreast: A Harry Hole Novel

I liked the book, but it could have been better. Closer to 3.5 stars than 4 really. I liked Flaggermusmannen a little more. I will read more from Nesbo, but right now I need something a little lighter. Pretty much all of the WWII stuff, which took up a good portion of the beginning of the book, could have been cut. It was nice back story, but it really could have been told just as well in a condensed version towards the end in the 'memoir' section. The alternating current/WWII chapters also made it somewhat untidy. Like Life of Pi, the chapters were very short. There are over 100 chapters for a book of less than 500 pages. The character development was quite good. The location settings were well described. The feeling of despair that Harry evokes comes through. I've learned a new word, and it is ennui. I think it describes Harry well. I really liked Ellen and wish she could have had a larger, continuing role. But, I think that is simply a part of Nesbo's writing technique: Harry can never be happy for long. The parts that bugged me the most were about the weapons. I'm not sure if Nesbo is simply unfamiliar with firearms (he shouldn't be having been in the military), lazy in his writing about them, or deliberately misleading his readers about them. Another possibility is that it's the translator doing it. Whichever it is, it's extremely annoying. I'm not even a firearms person, but the errors were so egregious as to detract from the story. There were several times I had to put it down and shake my head. The ebook was formatted well. There were no obvious spelling mistakes (though a few times non-American spellings made their way in), and only a couple of punctuation/line break errors.

This is the first time I've met Harry Hole, Nesbø's grim cop. Seems like a good guy, even if he's a flawed loner with huge problems. This story is pretty intricate. Extremely complex plotting. And the story works. I felt myself rooting for several of the characters. And I learned a few things about Norway during World War II. Well worth reading. And I'm sure I'll be hanging out with Harry Hole in other books.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it after visiting Oslo and accidentally stumbling into Harry Hole's regular dive spot. It was fun to read having visited because I could really visualize the scenes of the story.