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I\u2019m not sure what to think<\/strong> about Harry Hole (pronounced \u201cWHO-leh.\u201d You\u2019re welcome), Norwegian author Jo Nesb\u00f8\u2019s series detective who\u2019s catching on very well in the current vogue for Scandinavian mysteries.<\/p>\n In The Devil\u2019s Star<\/a><\/i>, Harry displays one characteristic that I\u2019ve grown very weary of in fictional detectives. He\u2019s a mess in his personal life. He\u2019s an alcoholic, it\u2019s ruining his job and his relationships, and he doesn\u2019t care enough about himself to fight for his life. He\u2019s a superior police detective, but lately he hasn\u2019t come to work for days at a time. He loves a woman who loves him \u2013 and her son adores him \u2013 but he\u2019s stepping back from them, afraid of commitment and failure, haunted by profound fatalism.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s high summer, \u201choliday season\u201d in Oslo, and the police are operating with a skeleton force. When his supervisor (who\u2019s name is Bjarne M\u00f8ller \u2013 an homage to the 1970s American cop comedy?) needs to send two detectives to a murder scene, he can find no alternative to calling Harry, and teaming him up with his worst enemy \u2013 Detective Tom Waaler, who Harry is convinced is not only corrupt, but a murderer.<\/p>\n The murder victim shows marks of ritual \u2013 one finger has been cut off, and a star-shaped diamond left on the body. Soon there\u2019s another similar murder, and another, and it becomes a full-fledged serial case.<\/p>\n I was fairly impatient with the first half of the book, where Harry stumbles (sometimes literally) around, either drunk or hung over most of the time, pushing away all attempts to help him. But in the second half things start moving, and Harry comes to life at last, and I was pleased pretty well by that part. The final showdown was exciting and effective.<\/p>\n Attitudes toward religion are interesting in The Devil\u2019s Star<\/i>. Christians (Pentecostals and Orthodox) show up \u2013 I\u2019m not entirely sure why, actually \u2013 and are not depicted as entire idiots. Harry does take one swipe at Christianity (unfair, in my view), but we are also told that he believes in the soul, and a formula he often repeats, \u201cParadoxes don\u2019t happen,\u201d is flatly contradicted by another character, who seems to know what she\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n All in all I liked The Devil\u2019s Star<\/i> better than I thought I would. Cautions for language, gore, and mature themes (some of them pretty kinky). I\u2019m not sure what to think about Harry Hole (pronounced \u201cWHO-leh.\u201d You\u2019re welcome), Norwegian author Jo Nesb\u00f8\u2019s series detective who\u2019s catching on very well in the current vogue for Scandinavian mysteries. In The Devil\u2019s Star, Harry displays one characteristic that I\u2019ve grown very weary of in fictional detectives. He\u2019s a mess in his personal life. … Continue reading The Devil's Star, by Jo Nesb\u00f8<\/span>
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