Harry Hole is a functional alcoholic, unrepentant chain smoking, loner detective on Norway’s Crime Squad when the book begins. The only person he relates to is his partner Ellen Gjelten. Harry causes a diplomatic embarrassment during a visit by the President of the U.S. but the nature of the incident sees Harry promoted to Inspector and transferred to the Norwegian Security Service (POT for short).

His duties in POT consist of reading reports and deciding which should be passed up the line and which are without merit. One of the reports catches Harry’s attention. Someone was test firing a Marklin rifle according the police report of a citizen’s complaint. Harry knows that his rifle would not be useful for hunting in Norway; it is much too powerful, In fact, it is a favored weapon of assassins. Harry is given permission to investigate mainly because his boss doesn’t really know what to do with him. He is supposed to be preparing a report on neo-Nazi plans on Norway’s Independence Day but Harry wants to know who acquired the weapon, how they acquired it, and, most importantly, why.

Though he no longer on the Crime Squad, Harry talks Ellen into helping him gather information and he begins the tedious process of trying to trace the rifle.

National Socialism figures rather prominently in The Redbreast. The action switches between Norway in 1999/2000 and the Eastern Front in WWII with a unit of Norwegians fighting for the Germans. The book gives us a picture of the National Socialist movement, past and present, in Norway.

Harry doggedly attempts to find a trail that will answer his questions but he has to make sense of events that may or not be related.

As a rule, this was not his forte, putting together small pieces of information which didn’t seem to have anything in common.

I thought that The Redbreast was the second Harry Hole story but according to Amazon UK it was written before The Devil’s Star. I prefer to read a series in order and was pleased to learn this. You will get critical back-story by reading this book first.

I enjoyed starting the year off with a bang by finding a favorite within the first two weeks.

Nesbo is an excellent writer and Don Bartlett’s translation into English flowed. It didn’t seem stilted at all. Besides the way time is shown – 9.30 rather than 9:30 – there was only one place where I had to turn to a translation web site. Harry’s sister refers to her boyfriend as a mongo and likes to tell Harry which of the residents in her building were mongos, and those who were only almost. It seems mongo might be short for mongrel and be a way of calling someone a bastard. It fits in context.

Harry an interesting, complex character. It is established that he is an alcoholic but, aside from a couple of benders under stress, it doesn’t seem to affect his job performance. I would say he is likeable and watching his investigative style is interesting particularly the way he and Ellen play off each other’s strengths.

The scenes with the Norwegian soldiers on the Eastern Front are very well done. The reader gets a real sense of the conditions and the resignation that begins to set in amongst the soldiers and the war drags on.

The story is complex and not at all linear. I would say it is more like looking at a map of the coast of Norway with lots of fjords to confuse you. I mean this in a good way. Several times where I thought I had the plot figured out only to have another element introduced that made me doubt. I had to concentrate and I liked that.

My only complaint is that there is a place where a police officer acts in a way that I thought unrealistic. This in a book that otherwise handled police procedures well. If the intent was to leave a set-up for the next book then it could have been handled differently with the same effect. But this won’t stop me from marking the Redbreast a favorite and recommending it highly to anyone who likes thrillers/police procedurals.