I have been burrowing through stacks of morose Scandinavian mysteries lately, so I thought surely I should tackled The Redbreast, voted the best Norwegian crime novel of all time. And, falling in line with my Norwegian brethren, I would recommend it highly.
The unfortunately named Harry Hole is a hard drinking, rule-busting Oslo cop whose bosses generally turn a blind eye because of his knack for solving crimes. He reminds me favorably of one of my favorite series characters, Michael Connelly's similiarly-named Harry Bosch. Unlike the more somber Scandinavian writers, Jo Nesbo infuses Hole with a fair amount of sardonic humor, a welcome relief from the somewhat navel-gazing detectives that populate these works.
The Redbreast is intricate but fast-moving, hard-nosed but philosophical, sprawling but intimate. The story jumps from a case involving modern Neo-Nazis to the Eastern Front of World War II, where Norwegians fought alongside Nazis against the Russians, and the terrible ties that bind these events. I enjoyed the plotting and characters and learned a lot about Norway's history during this time period.
Nesbo has been very popular overseas, and I hope this overture to English-reading audiences brings more translations of his work here. Recommended.
I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana and had to renew it several times to muscle through the 500-page-plus work.
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