The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

FOREIGN AUTHORS

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

Review Courtesy of Cassandra Alpaugh

Main Character: Police Detective Harry Hole

Series/Title: Harry Hole Series; The Redbreast

Setting: The story takes place during the final months of World War II to the present, and from the Russian front to contemporary South Africa and Oslo. 

Point of View: The author uses the multiple point of view method in the book and due to this the readers can get a glimpse into the minds of the protagonists as well as the antagonists; this creates a reading experience which is not only interesting because we get to know what happens next an who is behind all the crimes committed, but because we get very deep and thorough descriptions of the thoughts and motivations of the characters.

Style/Pacing: The story has a slow start but picks up pace especially on the Eastern Front and in Oslo when all the parts of the story start to collide together.

Main Character Traits: Police Detective is a lonely alcoholic who is terrible at relationships and has difficulty interacting with his coworkers, but develops great relationships with his beat partners.

Language/Writing: Intricate characters; lengthy subplots; well-drawn secondary characters

Emotional Impact/Degree of Violence: There is a lot of mental and physical carnage on the Eastern Front. A main portion of the story also deals with the violence of Neo Nazis and the “black stain” of soldiers from Norway who fought for the Nazis during World War II who are slowly being killed off.

Humor?: It is a very dark story.

Vulgarity/Sex?: Occasional swearing, sex is mostly off the page. Rated: PG

Special Points: This is the first book in the Harry Hole Series. I started with the 5th book in the series so it isn’t terribly important to start at the beginning. This is a difficult book to listen to on audio since the setting jumps time periods and the character’s names are very tricky.