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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.82374
EAN num: 9780061133992
ISBN number: 006113399X
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 528
Printing Date: December 01, 2007
Publishing house: Harper
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 53413
Studio: Harper
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Product Description:
From one of the most celebrated crime writers in Europe comes an epic new novel, brilliant in scope and design—a deep and fearless investigation of betrayal spanning two centuries and three continents.
Police Detective Harry Hole has made a terrible mistake. An embarrassment in the line of duty has pulled him off his usual beat. Reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks, he reluctantly agrees to monitor neo-Nazi activities in Oslo. But as Hole is drawn into an underground world of illegal gun trafficking, brutal beatings, and sexual extortions, he soon learns that he must act fast to prevent an international conspiracy from unfolding.
Trapped in the crosshairs of the man with all the answers, Harry Hole plunges headlong into a mystery with roots deep in the past. His investigation takes him back to Norway's darkest hour—when members of the young nation's government collaborated with leaders of Nazi Germany. Dredging up a painful history of denial, Hole turns his attention to the Norwegian troops who fought for Adolf Hitler on the Eastern front. Branded by their countrymen as traitors, the soldiers who survived the brutal Russian winter—the hunger, fear, cold, grenades, and snipers—returned home as scapegoats of a nation's atonement. Sixty years later, old grudges and betrayals appear to have been laid to rest, until Hole realizes that someone has begun to pick off the surviving soldiers one by one.
With only his troubled, guilt-ridden conscience as a guide, Hole must move quickly through the traps and mirrors of a twisted criminal mind. But as his sanity slips in a slow burn of anger and alcohol, his mistakes continue to pile up. And if he fails to quicken the pace, Norway's darkest hour since World War II just might lie in the future.
In a tightly woven plot that takes readers from the icy steppes of the Russian front to a seemingly peaceful springtime in modern-day Oslo, Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø delves into a sinister national history with uncommon bravery. Transforming shades of moral gray into an explosive palette of characters, Nesbø holds readers in suspense until the final pages. His deft orchestration of parallel narratives knows no match in the genre, and his thematic reach exceeds even the most ambitious thrillers on the market. With the U.S. publication of The Redbreast, American readers will learn what European readers have known for a decade—that Nesbø's writing is 'quite simply brilliant' (Weekend-Avisen, Denmark).
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Rated by buyers 
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This is book kept me reading far into the night. It reminds me of the spy novels of John Le Carre. It moves seamlessly from character to character and from modern Norway to World War II. Not only were the characters well drawn, but I glimpsed aspects of Norwegian history, like the Eastern Front and the Norwegian soldiers who fought on the side of the Nazis, of which I had no prior knowledge.
Rated by buyers 
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Nesbo uses many of the standard elements of crime novels - the intelligent but alienated detective, official corruption, distant events with contemporary consequences - in a decently plotted novel. Character development and writing are significantly above average.
Rated by buyers -
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 very 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 very 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 very 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 very 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 very 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 very 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 ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
"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 endeavor 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."
Rated by buyers -
"The Redbreast" is, quite simply, the best thriller I've read this year. I very 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 endeavor to stave off an assisination endeavor 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. Publishing houses take note: Get them translated and bring them to American readers who may be looking for something different.
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