The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jo Nesbo (Author), Don Bartlett (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: December 13, 2011

“With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction . . . Jo Nesbø wins.” —Marcel Berlins, The Times (U.K.)

Two young women are found murdered in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches fever pitch: Could this be the work of a serial killer?
 
The crime scenes offer no coherent clues, the police investigation is stalled, and the one man who might be able to help doesn’t want to be found. Traumatized by his last case, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. Yet when he is compelled, at last, to return to Norway—his father is dying—Harry’s buried instincts begin to take over. After a female MP is discovered brutally murdered, nothing can keep him from the investigation.
 
There is little to go on: a piece of rope, a scrap of wool, a bit of gravel, an unexpected connection between the victims. And Harry will soon come to understand that he is dealing with a psychopath for whom “insanity is a vital retreat,” someone who will put him to the test—in both his professional and personal lives—as never before.
 
Ruthlessly intelligent and suspenseful, The Leopard is Jo Nesbø’s most electrifying novel yet—absolutely gripping from first to last.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2011: At the end of his previous thriller, The Snowman, Jo Nesbo's Inspector Harry Hole was a ravaged mess. At the start of The Leopard, we find Hole hiding away from the world, smoking opium in the squalor of Hong Kong's back alleys. A pretty young police officer drags him reluctantly back to Norway to pursue another serial killer, this one more twisted and vicious than the Snowman. Despite some far-fetched scenes, Hole is a damaged, soulful, and believable character. And Nesbo is proving to be a major talent, an eloquent writer who,, with the end of Steig Larsson's trilogy and the retirement of Henning Mankell's brooding detective Kurt Wallander, seems poised to become heir to the title "King of the Nordic thriller." --Neal Thompson

Review

“Outstanding . . . Probably the best big crime novel you could lay your hands on this year.” —BBC Radio 4

“This one stands up to the ante one more time . . . Harry Hole [is] crime fiction’s most tortured and compelling hero.” —Booklist (starred)
 
“Intense . . . Nesbø moves the action easily from Hong Kong to Norway, with side trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo, without ever losing the plot’s sense of urgency.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
 
“Nesbø knows exactly what he’s doing [in] this gripping, intricately plotted tale . . . Like all intelligent crime fiction, this book is not only about multiple murders by heinous means. It is also about legacies, most specifically about the good and evil, love and hate, passed from one generation to the next. This vivid, violent novel promises to speak on many levels to many readers.” —Library Journal

“In The Leopard, Nesbø deploys all the key ingredients of a cracking good thriller with expertise and verve. The ticking clock, the tension expertly ratcheted ever upwards, the changing scenery, the constantly shifting goalposts, and his effortless, triumphant outpacing of the reader’s ability to guess what’s going to happen will keep you gripped to the last page.” —The Guardian (U.K.)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (December 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780307595874
• ISBN-13: 978-0307595874
• ASIN: 0307595870
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.5 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (258 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 135 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder, mayhem and Norwegian noir October 25, 2011

By Rett01 TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Again and again, author Jo Nesbo throws so many surprises at you and in such rapid succession that the unexpected becomes (almost) expected.

In "The Leopard" a character says, "no one is as they seem, and most of life, apart from honest betrayal, is lies and deceit." The same could be said of the story and its many twists and reversals.

Two thirds the way through this big (600 hardback pages) everything seems to be wrapped up but you expect - and you'll be right on - that our Norwegian sleuth Harry Hole (pronounced Whole-Lay, if you please) has a lot more sleuthing to do and more mayhem to deal with before all is revealed and everything explained. American readers are at an added disadvantage because we need to deal with the Norwegian names and locales. As usual with a Nesbo crime thriller, I started taking notes as soon as I opened the book.

We meet up with Hole in Hong Kong where he's gone to wallow in guilt and misery and punish himself physically and mentally after the devastating events in "The Snowman." We also meet Kaja Solness, a member of the Oslo crime squad who has been dispatched to collect Hole and bring him back where he's needed to help solve a number of grisly murders that have all the earmarks of a serial killer.

I prefer some nuance in my thrillers, some mental stimulation, plot intricacies that require thought and the application of logic. I prefer to have more than just sensation, thrills and a high body count resulting from the use of truly gruesome, grisly devices designed for torture and murder.

In the "The Leopard," Nesbo stretches credulity and tests the bounds of plausibility with a nasty apple-sized killing device that registers nearly off the scale on the shock-horror meter. I couldn't help wondering how someone would clean the macabre thing between uses.

For me Nesbo has been pushing things toward the extreme of violence and edging ever closer to exploitation. With each new novel in the series I feel more and more manipulated. But with that said, it remains unequivocal that "The Leopard," as with the previous Hole stories, is a thrill ride with velocity and force. Enough to keep me coming back? For at least one more ride. Yes, definitely.

Note" "The Snowman" is the eighth mystery in the Harry Hole series. It's the longest, most dense and philosophical. The first two wait to be translated into English; as a result "The Redbreast" is first in the English series. The other five, in order, are "Nemesis" (2009), "The Devil's Star" (2010), "Redeemer" (2009), "Snowman" (2011) and "The Leopard" (2011).

93 of 95 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, this once-wonderful series is becoming more sensationalistic and less human December 13, 2011

By Maine Colonial TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I've read all of the books in the Harry Hole series that have been translated into English and I'm not crazy about the direction Nesbř is taking in the most recent titles, and particularly this one.

First, the good things. I admire Nesbř's ability to depict broken people. He strips Harry down his soul, it seems, and makes us see the pain there. He's so good at showing the quiet, tender feelings Harry has for Rakel, Oleg, his father and some of the other people in his life. In this book, Nesbř gets into the complexities of Harry's relationship with his father, and this is very affecting. Nesbř has given us a lot of terrific female characters for Harry to work with over the course of this series, too: Ellyn, Beate, Katrine and now Kaja.

When I started reading the Harry Hole series, one thing that struck me was how well Nesbř got into the mind of the killer and made his actions comprehensible and sometimes even made him almost sympathetic. The murders were always very human murders.

Increasingly, I feel like Nesbř is getting away from the humanness in his killers and even, in a way, in Harry. Presenting us in recent books with serial killers and bizarre and elaborate murder methods is distancing. I feel like the books are becoming more sensationalistic and less real.

Every book requires the reader to have a certain suspension of disbelief. You enter the world the author has created, knowing it is fiction, but willing to go along with the story and identify with its people, time and place. Nesbř made that suspension of disbelief difficult for me with this book.

The long scenes of gruesome torture and murder seem like something out of an exploitation movie and are alienating to me. It feels manipulative, as if Nesbř is just trying to press the shock/horror button.

The physical danger Harry gets in, and his superhuman endurance and ability to take punishment are almost cartoonish. Or like an old James Bond movie. Nobody could survive all the situations Harry gets into in this book. As Harry's situations become more extreme, and his methods of escape more elaborate, he becomes less believable as a character. Nesbř also depicts Harry as so wrecked by drink, drugs and smoking that it's not believable that he continues to be so attractive to women.

I also got the feeling that Nesbř is starting to recycle material. Mikael Bellman, the workplace villain of this piece, is essentially a recycled Tom Waaler, the workplace villain of The Redbreast, Devil's Star and Nemesis. Finally, I thought the book was too long and the plot too convoluted.

I still think Nesbř is a tremendously talented writer who can create unforgettable characters and stories. I just hope he can drop the outlandish stuff, forget the hackneyed serial killer theme, and get back to basics and humanity, the way he did in the earlier books.

114 of 122 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Leopard by Jo Nesbř January 26, 2011

By Andrea Bowhill

Format:Kindle Edition

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, The Devil's Star: A Harry Hole Novel, The Redeemer followed by The Snowman which then brings us to The Leopard.

Review - The Leopard (Harry Hole, Book Eight)

Hole with his magnetism as a loner is back. The Leopard with its darkest elements to date, sixth book in translation and I can honestly say its fantastic reading. Filled with emotion, love, hate, ambition and greed, its fast paced, suspenseful and this author never lets up by twisting plots keeping the puzzle tight and the mind ticking over until the very end.

The author Jo Nesbř brings us into his opening scene Hong Kong, Kaja Solness has been sent from Oslo to locate Harry Hole in Kowloon. Hole had been on the missing list since the end of his last case The Snowman, his long term plans were too remain lost. Within forty-eight hours Kaja finds Hole and all his troubles which don't come cheap, given permission to bail him out of his gambling debt on the grounds he comes home his needed on a case but still he refuses. Kaja given no choice plays the final card, his father is in hospital his not expected to live. Hole decision is clear, his father is the one and only reason for his return.

Oslo; the file was handed over on route from the airport but not read, the first women Borgny Stem-Myhre, thirty three, single, no children, keen outdoors women loves walking, skiing her cause of death drowning, triggered by blood wounds from the mouth. The second women Charlotte Lolles, twenty-nine, lawyer, lived alone had boyfriends, loves the outdoors, cause of death; drowning, twenty-four wounds in the mouth. This was Gunnar Hagen welcome back present, on Holes first opportunity the file hit the bin and Hole to his words went to visit his father.

By the third Murder, Hole was arrested around the scene by him an unknown someone named Mikael Bellman. Gunnar Hagen gets Hole released, he also explained some things had change since he'd been away. An old argument had flared, cuts and rationalization in the force, crime squad versus kripos was there enough resources for two specialist branches with parallel expertise needed in a small country. Mikael Bellman seemed to be the new wonder-boy who moves upwards and onwards but had been nothing but trouble to others from day one, he employed an ex colleague from interpol, a finnish side kick Jussi Kolkka. Officially this was Mikael Bellman serial murder case but as Hole already disliked the man on looks alone his interest had suddenly turned. Hagen explained the case would have to be undercover with trusted chosen few, and that he could lose his job. Hole's intuition was always up for a challenge.

Longer book than the others but fantastic were constantly moving forward and the plots interwoven with emotional smaller stories throughout bringing back in the older and then new characters along the way keeping everything fresh with the right pace, suspense, tension and interest. Very descriptive he pays attention to detail great visuals which are crystal clear the dialogue is as always marvellous. The author reflects on financial matters; using the older buildings of Oslo that are just as rich as the new modern buildings except they don't have or need swimming pools, jacuzzi and saunas which seems a requirement for the social climbers new homes.

The book is more about Hole as a person, and his personal relationship he shares with his father, I found this really touching at times, you get to understand another side to Hole if anything else. As in every book the author keeps our minds busy. New Mikael Bellman reminds me of a character long gone Tom Waaler but its Harry himself whose still the most compelling character to read. The story well I have to say I was in the thick of it with follow my lead throughout, even with Hole's intuition that borders on the super-natural, I'm not one to give up, stayed right with him and its a wonderful twist to the finish line. Best to just kick back, get in there and enjoy every minute.

Translation would also like to touch on this point much like the UK we have our North, South, East, West and somewhere in the middle five common dialects and I'm sure Norway have the same set up generally. Although it would have taken me forever I would love to have been able to read parts of this book in its original context or maybe had that ear for sounding of original language as I had the feeling the author plays a lot with the Norwegian dialects comically in the originals, some Bergensian intonation for instance. I seemed to have picked up on this very clearly in the last book from translated passages and certainly in this book, originals of course always have the edge but the translator has done a fantastic job to get around wording so we are able to understand, his kept it with its directness and humour, the character Harry Hole although Norwegian could even be from the UK, a northerner its bizarre I know, but the translation and comical side seems to take me that way. So a big thank you to Don Bartlett for another clear translation in the series.

This Author writing goes from strength to strength each and every novel, highly recommended, great reading.

Andrea Bowhill