Customer Reviews

The Redbreast: A Novel

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm hooked. I started reading The Redbreast on President's Day weekend and at first was skeptical. The tale seemed to bounce from one era--the present--back to the 1940s, and then back to the 1990s again, for no real reason. Until the characters wormed their way into my consciousness and the stories of WWII and the story of 1999 began to come together, that is. Wow! I stayed up nearly all night, unable to put this down. Nesbo creates real people in her characters, whose thoughts, no matter how horrific, are made understandable to the reader along with their passions, their fears and their hurts. I consider this not only a major contribution to the mystery/police thriller genres, but to the psychological and character-driven best works of Barbara Vine. This story creeps up on you without your being aware of it. Before you know it, you MUST discover what is going on and what will happen next. Highly recommended.

Those who follow mysteries are aware that some of the most intriguing works in that genre have been coming out of Scandinavia in recent years. Not least among these has been the work of Jo Nesbo, who lives in Oslo, Norway. His stories about police detective Harry Hole have garnered high praise. In fact, "The Redbreast" was voted the best Norwegian crime novel ever written by members of Norwegian book clubs.<
It's easy to see why, literally from the opening moments of the book. The pace is leisurely, but perfectly cadenced. The detail is carefully chosen, the revelations of character and depth drawn in easy strokes. This has to be attributed in part to translator Don Bartlett, but one must assume it was there in the first place.<
The book is set in the present, but its events cover a good deal of time. They go back to World War II, a time when some young Norwegian men willingly fought for Hitler. The plot includes the story of a war hero as well. So out-of-control and alcoholic Hole is plunged into a mystery whose elements reach far and wide.<
Hole is a wonderful, rich creation. And so is the villain in this book.<
"The Redbreast" is an ambitious book, a mystery, thriller, and serious work of literature combined. The fact that it is highly successful in each of its modes makes it the best thriller of the year - from any country.

The Redbreast is an exceptionally well-crafted and atmospsheric novel weaving the skein of two storylines together, one concerning Norwegians who joined the Waffen SS in WWII and fought on the Eastern Front believing they were defending their country from Soviet annexation, and the other a murder mystery involving neo-Nazi's in modern Oslo. The contemporary murder is investigated by Norwegian Police Inspector Harry Hole and the puzzling case begins to lead Harry into a dark era of Norwegian history and he finds that to solve the mystery in the present he must first solve a baffling mystery from WWII. The author, Jo Nesbo, makes stunningly good use of his plot to show that the past is much more complicated and complex than it is often presented later and personal ethical, moral, and political choices in a confused time can lead righteous men in different directions.

I was extremely excited to get this book after reading the blurb on Amazon. A murder mystery, set partially in modern Norway (a beautiful country I would love to visit) and partially on the Eastern front during WWII, covering both real Nazis and neo-Nazis, seemed like it could be a great read. I haven't been as excited to get a book by a new author in a long time actually. When I received the book and read the dust cover I got even more excited...apparently this book was voted "the best Norwegian crime novel EVER". As if that were not enough, apparently Jo Nesbo is a well-regarded pop music talent in Europe with several top ten hits and is also an economist. My wife noted that he was also exceptionally good-looking. I decided, with a little effort, to not hold all of this spectacular over-achievement against Nesbo, and just try to enjoy the book. I jumped Redbreast to the front of the crowded reading queue and got started.

Before I venture into my thoughts on this novel let me preface my comments by saying that this is an exceptionally good book and I very much liked it. There several items which as I was reading struck me as noteworthy and which I believe are worth sharing here. These are not meant to be negatives, just observations that interested me.

The first hundred pages were slow going and I wasn't gaining much traction. There was nothing wrong with the writing but the story wasn't immediately engaging. After you cross that first hundred page barrier though the story picks up steam and becomes riveting. There were a few things about the book which could be a little off-putting but I think they are understandable in context. There is some dialogue that can seem odd, but I'm sure that it has to do with difficulties in translating from Norwegian. There are always unique cultural thought processes and manners of expression which do not smoothly translate from one language to another. These odd bits are noticeable but they do not detract from the story. Actually they made me pay more attention. There is much less character development of the protagonist, Harry Hole, than I would have expected. In thinking about the book I believe it is for two reasons. Nesbo has written seven books which feature Harry Hole. This is the third in the series but the first two haven't been translated yet. I wish they had been because I would have preferred to start at the beginning, and not having the background from the first two novels does make it harder to figure Harry out and to identify with his character. You do get there, but it takes much longer when you are essentially dropped into the middle of his life-story without any context. I'm reasonably sure the missing character development can be found in the first two books. The other reason there may have been less character development of Harry is that significant chunks of the book are about other protagonists. Another item which struck me was that if the reader is paying attention they will solve the mystery about 90% of the way through the book, but it takes Harry a little longer. There was nothing particularly wrong with this, it's just that in my experience the reader either gets to understand the mystery from near the beginning and then we cheer the protagonist on as they fit the pieces together, or its the other way round, the protagonist fits the pieces together for us and all is revealed to the reader by the competent sleuth at the denouement. I actually kind of liked struggling with Harry to solve the baffling mystery and getting there just a little ahead of him. It was just that I felt this was unusual enough to be worth noting, perhaps an approach unique to Nesbo or perhaps something we'll see more of in the future from other writers. One last unusual item, especially since some readers may be bothered by it, was that there was a tangetial murder that was not solved and a bad guy who was not nabbed. Perhaps this will be revisited in one of the succeeding Harry Hole novels when they are translated, or perhaps this is Nesbo realism. You can't catch all the bad guys all the time.

As I said, the foregoing are not meant to be negatives. I found the book to be thoroughly enjoyable after the first one hundred pages of set-up. The mystery, which bounces back and forth from WWII to the present was a truly excellent one that will leave you baffled and then thoroughly satisfied once the pieces fall into place. In fact, I think the mystery was handled exceptionally well. Although it didn't start this way, this novel did develop into one of those books that you don't want to put down. There was also one particular scene in the book which spiked my tension and stress levels way past any other reading experiences lately and I admired the skill with which Nesbo crafted that scene. I found myself wanting to shout warnings out loud to the character...that is some pretty strong writing when you become so involved you start to talk to the characters in the book! All in all, while I don't know if this is the best crime book ever from Norway, it is still a very fine crime book indeed and I will definitely be reading anything by Nesbo I can get. In fact, I think the biggest weakness of this book was simply the lack of preparatory Harry Hole novels. I hope they translate them soon.

I share many of the enthusiastic reactions of other reviewers of this novel. As a writer and storyteller, Nesbo is way in front of the recent Scandinavian masters of the genre who have, in my view, produced the best police procedurals in the last generation, though I find Henning Mankell (Kurt Wallender procedurals), the reigning champion of the genre, tedious. But Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, of some decades ago, still reign supreme.

Nesbo has some first-order talents: his characters are leanly drawn, yet complex; his story telling skills are masterful: the scenes of violence, for instance, are unexpected and devastating -to the reader as well as to the victims, and sometimes to the perpetrator. (Nesbo seems is more comfortable with violence than with tenderness, but maybe that's a weakness of the genre--and of his hero, Henry Hole.

In the end, unfortunately, the very richness and complexity of the plot paralyze the story. The denouement seemed contrived and self-conscious. The plot device used to convince the reader that the villain of the piece could be one and the same with one of its most noble characters was fatally unconvincing. The extensive `confession' of the culprit had a flatness that seemed entirely unsuited to the character and somehow vulgarized the entire experience. Part of the problem, I think, was that Nesbo had too much complexity to unravel at the end. There were too many important characters, all with much the same experiences, and with some pretending to be someone else, reducing the huge machine of a plot to a crawl for the final 50 pages

Moreover, some of the twists and turns seemed superfluous and distracted from the central story's momentum. Why for example did he need to introduce Sofia at all? Why the largely extraneous side story involving Inspector Waaler, which, astonishingly, was never resolved. Did Nesbo himself get so confused, he forgot to settle with this character?

So I was in the end hugely disappointed at this bravura undertaking-- because it came so close to being so good.

But I'll give Nesbo another chance; a thinner and more disciplined book could take him over the Sjowall/Wahloo bar.

"The Redbreast" is a smart and sophisticated crime novel, an intelligent and cleverly crafted tale of honor, disgrace, and chicanery that will have you scratching your head, unable to pull away from a convoluted mystery spanning nearly six decades while probing an obscure but fascinating niche of WWII history.


Written by Jo Nesbo in 2000, this Norwegian award winner was translated to English and released a couple of years ago. It starts in 1999, with Oslo police detective Harry Hole nearly causing an international incident when botched communications disrupt a motorcade transporting the President of the US. In an attempt to keep Hole - and Norway, out of the limelight, Harry is shuffled off to a government agency tasked with keeping an eye on neo-Nazi activity in the capital city. Abruptly turn the clock back some fifty-seven years to the Eastern front, to a team of Norwegian nationals, voluntarily fighting the Bolsheviks for the Wermarcht. From Oslo to Leningrad to Vienna and back, Nesbo takes the reader through contrasting images of frozen foxholes and gilded mansions, from traitors who betrayed Norway and joined the invading Nazis while maintaining a semblance of dignity to stone cold killers on both sides of history.

"Redbreast" is one of those rare gems of fiction that illuminate dark corners of history while at the same time maintain the pace and suspense of the best pop thrillers. The characters are well drawn and believable, though a word of warning: there are many, and some effort is required in keeping names, places and times in some order. Nesbo is tediously precise not only in his research, but moreover, in dropping obscure hints and foreshadowing leading to a climax that was as credible as it was unexpected, a series of multiple twists and turns that you'll need your Garmin to track, while leaving enough ambiguity to launch a sequel.

Nesbo will remind of the painstaking detail of LeCarre's finest works - "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" or "Smiley's People", and may recall images from Turow's "Ordinary Heroes" or Silva's "The Confessor". It shares the broodingly atmospheric Scandinavian fatalism of Icelander author's Arnaldur Indridason's outstanding crime fiction, especially the eerily similar and highly recommended "Silence of the Grave." This is an ambitious novel - and clearly one of the most engrossing books I've read this year - I'd highly recommend adding Jo Nesbo to that list of "must reads."

Extra Information : The first two books for this Harry Hole series The Bat Man and The Cockroaches have not been produced for translation at this time. The Redbreast would be the third book in this series; if you were to start this series my recommendation would be from The Redbreast. The series then follows through in order with Nemesis: A Novel (Harry Hole), The Devil's Star and finally The Redeemer (A Harry Hole Mystery) which will then bring everyone up to date for the release of The Snowman March 2010.

Review - The Redbreast

The Redbreast is a wonderful complex, tightly constructed novel; shifting between history and a contemporary modern day crime plot. The Author Jo Nesbų brings us into his Oslo and story during late 1999. Detective Harry Hole and work partner Ellen Gjelten have been given a routine security assignment but it doesn't take long for a communication break down and all to go horribly wrong. Over at police HQ a decision from the seniors are quickly made to promote Harry to the rank of inspector, a promotion combined with a move to a screened operation in POT, also known as getting him out of the way and cover up any police blunders. Harry's new assignment is to monitor neo-Nazi activities; he soon discovers a high-calibre rifle has been smuggled into the country, a favourite weapon for any assassin.

The second story is the heart of where this tale starts World War II, 1942 this plot is constantly moving itself forward through the war. Norwegian soldiers many without any initial training were sent to the front, they thought they were fighting for their country but the realization was very different they were fighting a losing battle for Hitler on the Eastern front. The Russians were gaining ground and survival was simply taken a day at a time, fear became every soldiers best friend. Many deserted or became prisoners of war others joined the Norwegian Resistance. War with its deepest psychology, one man's darkness will never end, wanting his own justice severed.

I first read this book in 2007 it was suspenseful and gripping then, the second time around was very much the same but strangely enough my re-read was around Remembrance Day just gone, which was nothing more than a coincidence but it did make this book more thought provoking. Jo Nesbų based parts of this book on his own family stories from WWII this I feel is a wonderful tribute to his own parents. Personal family stories from any war are the ones normally told quite differently from our history books, so his own family stories makes this whole storyline very intriguing to read. The Author gives us a clear outline of Norwegian life, different perspectives, outcomes, it covers quite a lot of views, choices and actions during and after the war; actions that shows peoples future fate. Two sides, one outcome, both sides looking to win, for some it will never end, anti-Stalinist on one side and Norwegian Resistance on the other, characters share stories and tragedies while everything remains on a conclusion course for the final dark modern day twisted finish. The author builds suspense and tension throughout, incredibly descriptive with some real heartbreaking moments too.

Brilliant characterization, clear insight, observation and mannerism of people it's all quite uncanny. If you're reading about Harry Hole for the first time, expect a loner, an alcoholic full of cynicism but he remains likeable, when his job bears too much evil it keeps him from staying on the wagon. Another reason to start here you will also meet quite a few other characters in this book that continue through the series, especially on his love life as it starts to flourish in this one.

It's the little things: The humour in Jo Nesbų novels never escapes my notice, it translates into an English dry sense of humour and it works well with everything else going on. Something else I've noticed about this authors writing his very descriptive, he pays great attention to detail, however small, for this book it's anything from a mechanical hitch in Harry's run down old Escort (most of us have all been there, trying to get the car to start on a cold morning alone, hoping it might just turn over the first time) or just the simple things that happen in every day life to make realness and imagination connect. Thoroughly enjoyed this authors work and with the history, mystery, twists combined he never missed his mark, highly recommend, great book for any evening, especially a winters one.

Also adding here a thank you to Don Bartlett for the clear translation in the series.

Andrea Bowhill

This book was generally very well written and interesting, but the author has two of his characters do amazingly stupid things. Ellen finds out that Waaler is a Neo-Nazi, knows she is in danger from him, leaves a message for Harry, but doesn't include Waller's name in the message?! Waaler's supposed to be a smart guy, but doesn't wonder why his cell phone is turned off and doesn't look at his incoming call log!? Waaler kills the Neo-Nazi guy, but doesn't care that he couldn't have gunshot residue on his hands because he didn't fire the throwdown gun? These things just ruined the book for me. It was as if Nesbo was too lazy to come up with a credible plot line.

Having been reading a few of the Scandinavian writers after helplessly roaring through Larsson with mixed feelings, I tried Nesbo. Really like the way he writes two stories occurring and sometimes interacting at once with implications of more. Some of the Scandinavians seem to be writing in a more "contemplative" mood - Mankel, Nesson. Nesbo's style is a bit more active. Like him a lot!

"The Redbreast" is, quite simply, the best thriller I've read this year. I first read "The Devil's Star" by Mr. Nesbo and was very impressed with his writing and his protagonist, Detective Harry Hole. Harry is sort of the Norwegian equivalent of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch.

A portion of this story takes place during World War II and details the fighting that took place along the Norwegian border with Russia. The Norwegians supported the Nazi's in their efforts to stop the Russian advance into their homeland. Several of the men that fought on the front lines during the early 1940's play an integral role in the modern day tale of Hole's attempt to stave off an assisination attempt on current Norwegian royalty.

Harry Hole, a world weary investigator, is shuffled off to a lesser investigative branch of the government after he accidently almost kills a Secret Service Agent who he thought was trying to kill a visting President Clinton in the late 1990's. He becomes embroiled in an investigation into white supremacists, meets a fellow woman agent that he falls for, and delves into the past to uncover the secrets of several men who fought in the war.

The book is long but doesn't feel like it and the pace picks up considerably during the last two hundred pages. I would defy anyone to put this novel down while charging through to the end of a story that has one of the most incredible, twisting endings that I have read in years. The plotting of this book was masterful. I was very sorry when this one ended. I'm also sad that it took so long to get this and other novels from the same region translated into English so they can be enjoyed on this side of the Atlantic. Nesbo, Mankell, Erickson, et al. are all great writers and have so much to offer to the genre. Publishers take note: Get them translated and bring them to American readers who may be looking for something different.

There is a serial killer in Oslo, Norway who has offed a few people, and has also turned his wrath on a huge tree. This is just one puzzlement among many that are encountered as we follow dedicated detective Harry Hole on his search for the murderer. Actually he is unaware of the slaughtered tree, but this curious killing is an important part of the story.

Harry Hole has been assigned to desk duty after he comes close to murdering an American Secret Service agent. He's a good detective, though, and early on he comes across a report of a strange shell casing found in the woods. The report is generally ignored, but Harry checks into it, and finds that it undoubtedly comes from an expensive sniper's rifle rarely, if ever, found in Norway.

This is one of those flashback novels, and we are periodically taken from 2000 Norway to 1942 Leningrad. I'm not a flashback fan, but the wartime sections regarding Norwegian soldiers fighting for Germany are quite interesting, and of course the wartime events have a bearing on Harry's current day investigation.

Harry is a solitary sort of guy, and he encounters personal hardships in his search for the killer, but he even finds romance as time goes on. Of course everything works out in the end. Or does it? There is one tantalizing loose end that leaves the reader with an ominous feeling.

This is a wonderful mystery full of interesting, well developed characters. It's also refreshingly different from the run of the mill panic driven plots that are all too frequent these days. We move slowly and steadily through a book that is well written and engaging.