Seeking for an author to fill the Steig Larsson-shaped hole in my library, on the shelf marked "grim, yet gripping, Northern European detective thrillers", I happened upon Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, whose latest novel The Snowman is being helpfully touted as "the new Larsson". Before I got to that though, someone recommended I first read Nesbo's earlier book starring policeman Harry Hole, The Redeemer. As it turns out, if I wanted to be a completist I should have gone back even further and started with Hole's earlier adventures The Redbreast and The Devil's Star (plot elements from which are referenced here) but fortunately it's quite possible to read any of Nesbo's novels as a self-contained mystery (something that isn't really true of the second and certainly the third Lisbeth Salander books).
The Redeemer is a Serbian contract killer hired to murder a prominent member of Salvation Army in Oslo... who ends up shooting the wrong man. Despite the fact that the police are closing in, the Redeemer is determined to put right his mistake... but who hired him in the first place? Harry Hole's investigation is hampered by a new boss, unreliable witnesses, unexpected tragedy... and the fact that the killer has a rare condition known as hyperelasticity that renders him virtually unrecognisable - he's an actual rubber faced criminal. (Talk about stretching credibility!)
Although a far more traditional thriller writer than Larsson, Nesbo succeeds in many areas where Larsson showed weakness, particularly the action sequences. This novel has a movie script sense of visual excitement that was missing from the Dragon Tattoo books, and it's here that Nesbo scores. On the other hand, his characters aren't anywhere near as compelling as Larsson's and there isn't his fascinatingly anal attention to detail or skill at making everyday mundane routine so gripping. It's wrong to compare the two writers - hell, they're not even the same nationality. But shorthand comparisons shift books, and I'm sure Nesbo isn't complaining about "the Larsson effect".
The Redeemer is an exciting and unpredictable thriller - I'm looking forward to reading more Harry Hole adventures soon.
