A Harry Hole Novel (Harry Hole Series) - The Redbreast

In a few rapid-fire opening pages the Norwegian cop with the bad personal habits and the absolute crummiest name in the gumshoe-thriller genre, Harry Hole, screws up and shoots a U. S. Secret Service Agent in the back while working a security detail covering a 1999 U.S. presidential visit to Norway. As a result, Hole gets himself promoted to inspector in the Oslo Security Service. Go figure.

That's the prologue. And that's how events and circumstances don't often turn out as expected in a Jo Nesbo crime stopper involving the tall, newly appointed inspector with the close-cropped hair, black jeans and hi-top Doc. Martens.

This time around Hole goes against a group of skinheads and aging Norwegian nationals with WWII Nazi connections. The story begins more than half a century earlier at the end of the war on the cold, wintry Eastern Front where a band of Norwegian anti-Russians has enlisted as Hitler's foot soldiers on a fool's errand combating the Bolsheviks.

The psychic and physical wounds from 1944 are carried forward into the present and to Oslo where they lead to a May 17 Norwegian Independence Day assassination plot that Hole is wise to and is doggedly trying to derail.

The story threads back and forth between the German front in the waning days of the war and present-day Oslo. Norwegian national sympathies, lingering Nazi influences and the country's current culture as well as political issues and prejudices are woven tightly into a densely textured broadcloth of a story, rich in detail and very good in creating a vivid sense of time and place.

Harry Hole should meet up with Lee Child's Jack Reacher or Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. They probably couldn't stand each other's company but they do share the same directness of purpose and sense of resolve that doesn't leave much room for fear or indecision. Hole, unlike Bosch and Reacher, is more of a pushover when it comes to women, when emotion and impulsiveness appear to trump reason and rational action.

The novel follows a full truckload of characters, so many that I started a crib sheet on my K3 in a somewhat hapless attempt to keep them straight. Nesbo seems to want to keep the reader off balance and build intrigue by continually entwining his characters and mixing up the cast. As a plot device, he unexpectedly kills off a major player, who is on the good side, and not all the bad guys get their just punishment. He plays with names, family relationships, shifts identities and splits one of the key antagonists into dual personalities. All this keeps the action lively and the reader guessing, but it's really difficult to keep up and keep everything sorted out. Think of Alfred Hitchcock pulling out all the stops and adding a few more feints to "Vertigo."

Hole observes three-quarters into the story that a musical note, a tone in isolation cannot be off-key. It becomes grating in connection to and in association with the notes it accompanies. "A tone isn't off-key until it is set alongside other tones." The same is true of books, I think, and by comparison "The Redbreast" stacks up and plays out well in comparison with the best of Nesbo's thrillers and with the bestsellers of the genre by Child, Connelly, Olen Steinhauer or even John LeCarre.
[3.5 stars]

"The Redbreast" is first in the Harry Hole series to be translated into English. The other five, in order, are "Nemesis" (2009), "The Devil's Star" (2010), "Redeemer" (2009), "Snowman" (2011) and "The Leopard" (2011).

The plot and premise were pretty good. Being unfamiliar with Nordic names and cities, the firehose of characters delivered at the start of this book kept me at a disadvantage often as folks were referred to later. It never helps when you are reading on a Kindle and don't have that easy -leaf backward to see "who was he anyway" capability.

I was deeply saddened when I finished the Stieg Larsson series and despaired of finding something that would hold a candle to those three books. Because of a suggestion from the store (go the store!) I tried "The Redbreast" by Jo Nesbo and loved it. Harry Hole is a deeply flawed character, but a man of integrity as he sees it. I've now read a number of the Harry Hole series and highly recommend it for those who love this type of novel. Thanks, the store.

I cannot keep the names straight in some of these Norwegian books, which is my bad but it takes away from my enjoyment. It was a good procedural (Norwegian procedural, need I say more in terms of what to expect in general) but not great. It lacked that elusive magic that great books have. Wish I had more to say, just casting my vote.

I enjoyed reading "The redbreast" because it is a well-written, intelligent and unusual story.

The author uses the multiple point of view method in the book and due to this the readers can get a glimpse into the minds of the protagonists as well as the antagonists; this creates a reading experience which is not only interesting because we get to know what happens next an who is behind all the crimes committed, but because we get very deep and thorough descriptions of the thoughts and motivations of the characters.

I give 4 stars to the book because it is not flawless, and, interestingly, the biggest problem with the book lies with its main character. Harry Hole's character is simply a big collection of clichés; the character of an alcoholic, lonely, poor, but generous and just policeman is overused, in my opinion.

All in all, the book is worth reading, the story is engaging, the point of view characters are very well done, except for our hero, Harry Hole, who is simply too familiar to be interesting.

The plot was a combination of the past affection the actions in the present. In the story the past was complicated by the politics of the historical past from the perspective of Norwegians in WWII lightened with an intertwining love story.

I started with The Snowman, was immediately hooked, and went back to the beginning (The Bat) to read all of Jo Nesbo's books in order. So far, The Redbreast and The Snowman are my two favorites. While some Harry Hole books are unique in their location (Australia, Thailand), The Redbreast is unique in its going back and forth in time (between the present and WWII). Overall, a great mystery.

I picked this up on a friend's recommendation. It was my introduction to Nesbo's Harry Hole novels, and it set the bar high. In my opinion Nesbo is tops when it comes to Scandinavian crime fiction--and that's saying a lot. He can truly write AND tell a textured, character-and-plot driven story.

Vey cleverly ties together happenings of two very different time periods and by using the trick of Harry ostensibly reading outloud the long quotes from the other documents relieves him of having to explain it all by more mundane means. There is lots in there drawn out by Nesbo's research that no-one would normally know of how Norway was in the 1940's. I have been to the fortress at Akerhus and seen the Resistance Museum. It was interesting to find there -and confirmed in this story - that the Norwegian resistance movement ,like the French one, grew very quickly once the future of Naziism began to look bleak.

Years before Breivik murdered Norwegian youth at a political summer camp - Jo Nesbo raised the alarm about the connections that still exist between World War II's Nazis, modern Skinheads and the Norwegian police. The book uses a murder mystery to point out that these connections still exist today and explain the historical events that link them. An eye opener and a good mystery!

Nesbo's characters are as finely drawn as those by Dickens, and a lot of the pleasure of reading his mysteries derives from them. Some might find his stories long on character development, but his approach suits me just fine. I suppose it would be possible to shorten this story, but doing so would make the ride to the end a lot less enjoyable. Love Harry Hole, Ellen, Rakel - everyone. Great bad guys.

Very complicated novel requiring a scorecard to keep all of the characters straight, but it's a younger and very likable Harry Hole. I enjoyed the flashbacks and the intricate weaving of stories to reach a conclusion. Still some dangling threads that clearly presage future novels. Highly recommended for Nesbo devotees- one of his best.

Detective Hole is a loner but a big, tough, scary, and blessed with a great sense of humor. Plot is developed by chapter flashbacks to 1944 and a group of Norwegians participants on the eastern front but on whose side? I read this book on a recommendation here that Mr Nesbo was in league with Steig Larsson and among the best Scandinavian authors. I certainly agree. Now if someone could write a series using Nesbo' detective Hole and Larsson's Lisbeth Salander - what a great read

Nesbo's books are each a story unto itself, different from the one before and the one after. Varied. Interesting. And, the hero is flawed, but manages to get the job done.

A great series to read.

Excellent, well-written, tight story line. I find it difficult to find mystery/suspense novels as good as this one. I look forward to reading all of Jo Nesbo's books. I particularly liked the blunt depiction of the choices Norwegians had to make in the face of seven long years of occupation and exploitation in WW2 and the fact that there was no reliance on a black and white depiction of the value of the choices made.

Will Ellen's murderer ever be brought to justice? Politics are rampant in this story. I am reading these books in order, and although Harry's character was developed I was disappointed in the plot line.

Having read most of the later Harry Hole novels, I am filling the earlier ones. It was a pleasure to fill the backstory of Rakel and Oleg. This author has been writing excellent stories about complex well developed characters since the series started. The redbreast is a well organized narrative that spans decades, from W W 2 to recent days. I understand why it won awards.

Well written and compelling though the number of coincidences stretches credulity. Hard to keep all the characters straight, especially on Kindle, where it takes longer to find and re-read earlier chapters.

While the book is confusing at some points, it was worth it to finish. I don't care about the accuracy of the death penalty in Africa, and moslem holidays because it didn't really affect the story. He's a great writer, and I, like others, started with the SNOWMAN, and was glad to see more of his writing come our way. He definitely should keep writing.

A complicated plot takes the reader into a time in history that enlightens this reader. Using a visit by the current American president to get things started and taking us in close to how he is protected while on Foreign travel, to keeping the up with the times referring to Breaking Bad(!) this was a fast and rough story about loyalties.

I really enjoyed the book. I just recently discovered Harry Hole books and have read four of them. Also ordered two more. Can't wait to read them. It keeps you on your toes guessing who did what. One of the better murder/detective/mystery books I've read.

Convoluted fascinating plot. You have to really pay attention to follow it, but when you do, well worth the reading. A big caveat, however. You must read the series in order, otherwise you will never understand what is going on. I am about to finish the next one.

The Jo Nesbo novels featuring Inspector Harry Hole snag your interest on the first page and transport the reader to Sweden. This series can be read in any order although beginning the series with the first book "The Redbreast" enables the reader to keep track of reappearing characters in the series. The Redbreast provided an overview of Sweden's situation during WWII which I had never heard of until reading this book. Hard to put this book down once you begin reading!!

Chosen as the best ever Norwegian crime novel, this British translation intertwines the Norwegians who fought for the Germans on the Eastern Front in WWII with the neo-Nazis of modern Oslo. This rarely explored episode in Norwegian history ("we don't talk about that") explains the motives for the soldiers and offers an interpretation of the current skinhead recruits. Adding color to the plot is the ubiquitous alcoholic detective, the pretty young partner, the international arms scheme, the Nazi-archives of Vienna and a dash of simplistic psychology. It's a riveting read with a few red herrings, a twist here and there and a dangling finale. I loved being back on the streets of Oslo again. [note: I read the British paperback edition. Excellent translation.]

It took patience and attention to follow the story as it switched back and forth between past and present while remembering all the intertwining characters. But, once current events got rolling, the reader is rewarded with a clever, enthralling and suspenseful read.

I loved the Millennium trilogy, but Nesbo is at least as good and just keeps getting better and better. Complex and twisting plots, mysterious and sinister side characters--I love it! I've just finished the latest Harry Hole (The Leopard) and can't wait for the next one. His next book (The Headhunters) is not a Harry Hole story, but I'm going to give it a try, anyway. It has early good reviews.

Jo Nesbo is a master at the convoluted, twisted genre of nordic crime. Like "the boy in the suitcase" the characters come at you out of the blue and you have to eventually piece it together. Fortunately, Nesbo is a good tailor who "almost" seamlessly finishes the work at the very last page.

Jo Nesbo is officially now on par with Stieg Larrson (in my opinion) as a detailed mystery author. Redbreast is one in a series of Harry Hole books (I don't know which came first, and know I read Snowman out of sequence). It is spell binding; a real page-turner. I am now almost finished with Nemesis and looking forward to moving on to the next in the series.

I read this installment of the Harry Hole books out of order, and it does lack a little of the ease with which Nesbo knows and explains the thoughts and motivations of Harry as he works his way through the challenges in later stories. Nonetheless, the story itself is a perhaps early, but classic Hole adventure with twists and turns driven by the evil of the bad guys and the clay feet of the good guys. Harry Hole can become as addictive as Dave Robicheaux.

The plot has some interesting turns. I found I enjoyed it more by writing down the characters as I went along because there are so many characters introduced early that play a significant part later. With the Danish names it was a little more difficult to remember them. SInce reading this book , Ive read others by the same author which were good also.

Redbreast was one of the most complex mysteries that I have ever read. The character of Harry Hole is one with human foibles, but an uncanny ability to solve crimes. The characters throughout are unusual and don't seem linked to the crime. The setting in Norway seems to help give it a darker edge. Altogether, a very well-written mystery. I can understand why this book won so many awards. Jo Nesbo has an uncanny knack for writing in-depth characters.

I really enjoyed this book. I was fascinated by the historical perspective of World War II that was presented. I was also pleasantly surprised at the way the author brought the different story lines in the book together. I couldn't put it down. Well worth your time and money to read.

This is a wonderful combination of World War 2 Norwegian history and detective work! It keeps the reader guessing all the way to the end with a construction leaping between the past and present with a large cast of characters, each with a fascinating background. Harry Hole is a flawed hero with a drinking problem, but a keen observer of human behavior and possessing great integrity. This is my first Jo Nesbo book and I already have the sequel to this one. Definitely a fan now!

So many twists and turns. Author effective in explaining terminology in his story line. This is not one of the easy read mysteries I have read, as I had to reread some aspects over to maintain my understanding of the story line. Do not regret getting this book though.

I was awaiting a Norwegian theme after reading books one and two. It took me a while to connect the WWII chapters with the present day. I don't read every day, so it's my fault for not trudging forward to get the connection. Harry though is still great.