The Bat: Read the first thrilling Harry Hole novel from the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller (Harry Hole, 1)

Product Information

The light switch was off when they entered, which means either Andrew overdosed and hung himself in the dark, or he was killed.

So you’ve been sent here to assist us with our investigation into the murder of Inger Holter, a Norwegian citizen with a permit to work in Australia. To the west he saw the city center with the Harbor Bridge, to the north the beach and yachts in Watson’s Bay and, further in the distance, verdant Manly, the suburb on the northern side of the bay. Nope, it was poorly written, equally poorly translated and lacked an editor to ensure that the translation made sense in English. When he eventually works out who the killer is, having led his Australian colleagues down a few blind alleys, he almost instantly has deep insight into who he is, which made me wonder why he hadn’t worked it out sooner.Picked up from the airport by Andrew Kensington Harry is thrust into Australian culture rather quickly. Within minutes of seeing her behind the bar, Hole can’t resist asking out a Swedish woman who worked with the dead Norwegian, having admired her long red hair, willowy back (?

The first thing I learned from the novel was that, in Jo Nesbø’s head, and who am I to doubt that he’s correct, Norwegians and Australians alike are casually racist.When Harry and Andrew travel to investigate Evans, whom Harry is convinced must be the murderer, they find little information about the small times drug dealer. The passport official looked up from the special visa and studied him, but the pursed mouth was gone. An earlier reviewer complained it was UK English not US so he didnt understand some of the colloquial phrases. He feigns surprise and answers that he’s from Queensland, causing Hole to splutter an embarrassed apology. Harry is informed that it appears she was raped before she was killed, but given the condition they found her there is no evidence to be found.

One would think that the trail had gone cold, Harry as drunk of a mess that he is, but amazingly his mental faculties are still intact. Celebrated American author of detective fiction Raymond Chandler once said, “The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.I was more amused than astounded by the way Hole develops deep friendships with people within a few days of being in Australia working on a murder case in a second language. Andrew gets frantic, attempting to warn Harry not to be bring Otto in, but given his condition he can't quite seem to get out what he wants to say.

He was on the point of grabbing a taxi when a black man wearing light blue jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, and with an unusually broad nose and dark, curly hair plowed a furrow between the signs and came striding ­toward him. He's an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 55 million copies around the world. Had the weather been a little worse the waves would definitely have carried her out, but instead she lay among the rocks until she was found. I fell for blonde, Norwegian Harry, and found myself rooting for him and agonizing over his missteps.The hope was to nail Evans on some drug charges, and to scalp information from him while he was detained.