Hello, this is LuAnn O’Hair. I am an English teacher in Woodward, Oklahoma.
The first Jo Nesbo book I read was Nemesis. My son was in high school, and we frequently joked about his nemesis on an opposing academic team; so when, on a trip to a bookstore, I saw Nemesis on a book spine in the mystery section, my favorite, I picked it up. After I finished Nemesis, I started at the beginning of the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole series, and have read every one since.
Why? Because Harry Hole is my kind of detective. He’s tough, he’s haunted by his life, he’s an alcoholic, a drug-addict, a loner, a “get the job done, catch a killer, no matter how” policeman. He’s imperfect in so many ways, yet you can’t help but like him. You want him to get the killer, and you want him to find love. But, what you really, really, really want is for Harry to get his life together.
He solves crimes the old-fashioned way: legwork, talking to people, and making brilliant deductions. But, you never feel the way you might when you read some other mysteries…as if you could never follow the clues and solve the crime. As a matter of fact, sometimes, Harry takes a wrong turn or makes a wrong conclusion, and you sympathize because you also made that wrong turn and that wrong conclusion.
His personal life, on the other hand, he cannot seem to solve. He cannot seem to make the right conversations happen. He cannot make the right conclusions. He makes horrible, brutal mistakes that hurt your heart and his.
Nemesis begins with a bank robbery that ends in a killing. This robbery is very soon followed by others. Harry is a homicide detective who doesn’t much like sharing cases with anyone, but he especially doesn’t like sharing cases with Iverson, the robbery detective. Harry is also working with a new partner, Britte, after the still unsolved murder of his previous partner. Britte has her own haunted past related to the death of her father who was also a police officer.
Nemesis takes complicated twists and turns. There are criminals who aren’t such bad guys who offer aid in the investigation (for a price, of course). There are corrupt policeman (aren’t there always in a good detective novel), and, oh, yes, in the midst of solving several crimes, Harry is hiding the fact that he was at the home of a victim the night she was murdered. A night he has no memory of.
To complicate matters further, his girlfriend, Rakel, and her son, Oleg, are in Russia as she fights for custody of the child.
The best part of Nemesis, the best part of all Harry Hole novels, is the way everything (and I mean everything) is intertwined. Every move Harry makes affects every aspect of his life. Another intriguing aspect of the novel is, of course, the setting. Norway lends itself to spectacular imagery of frozen vistas. The legal system, while similar to American crime novels, is different in ways that add interest to the story. Another difference is that Norwegian officers generally do not carry guns, so the entire novel has a different feel about gun violence than American detective stories.
In the end, Harry solves the crime, but not before several other people are killed. He helps a bank robber get revenge, he owes a bank robber a debt for helping Rakel in Russia, he and his new partner begin to understand one another, and he takes steps toward solving the murder of his previous partner. All in all, it’s a fantastic read that will keep you engrossed to the final plot twist.
I’m LuAnn O’Hair for the HPPR Radio Reader’s Book Club’s 2023 Fall Read.
