Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Killing Moon, by Jo Nesbo.

 

            Harry Hole.  Ah, Harry Hole, Jo Nesbo’s brilliant alcoholic Norwegian detective, adept at solving the heinous crimes of serial-killers, but just about done-for by the time this story starts.  Harry is in Los Angeles, determined to drink himself to death or, when his money runs out, to finish everything off by his own hand – and gun.  To join his beloved Rakel, cruelly murdered by a friend who wanted the ultimate revenge – but fate (or karma) has other plans for Harry:  he rescues an elderly lady from death by her creditors, but there’s a time limit on their generosity:  he has a week to find nearly a million dollars, or Lucille, whose kindness to Harry has been legendary, gets a bullet.

     Coincidentally, he receives a call from Oslo with a job offer:  working as a private detective to prove the innocence of a multi-millionaire who is facing murder charges after the bodies of two young women were found within a week of each other, the second one beheaded.  Suspicion has fallen on the millionaire because they were both guests at a lavish cocaine-addled party he threw in his penthouse on the night the first girl died and despite the fact that his wife provides an alibi for him, there is evidence that this is not the case. 

It is no easy thing to return to Oslo with all its wonderful and terrible memories – and all the familiar drinking holes, not to mention all the colourful characters from Harry’s past, including his former police colleagues, some of whom are less than pleased to see him, but Harry is on a time limit and time is of the essence:  he knows that Markus Røed is probably innocent of the crimes with which he is charged, but he’s guilty of crimes just as destructive and believes that power and money can buy anything, including Harry Hole, who is singularly unimpressed:  just tell him the truth and show him the money.

But Markus has rampaged through his life without a thought for the people he crushed under his hand-made shoes on the way – until one of them decides to strike back, and fashions a revenge that is truly Biblical. 

And I, who pride myself on guessing whodunit from early on in the piece, was  truly tricked into thinking it was someone else entirely – I could have taken my pick of all the red herrings on offer and still came up crook, so Jo Nesbo has done it again:  given us a truly thrilling page-turner, with wonderful supporting characters and a protagonist who has endeared himself permanently to every reader to the extent that there would be an international outcry if Harry Hole did indeed decide to end it all.  SIX STARS.