Review of KNIFE by Jo Nesbo

4 Stars

I always look forward to the latest instalment in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø.  He is an author whose books I will purchase in hardcover as soon as they are published.  Knife is the 12^th book and it does not disappoint.

Rakel, Harry’s wife, has thrown him out of the house so Harry has returned to drinking.  One morning he wakes up with blood on his clothes but with no memory of the night before; this amnesia is problematic because during that night a loved one was murdered.  Harry sobers up and sets out to find the person responsible. 

Throughout the novel, there are a number of plausible suspects.  For instance, one suspect is Svein Finne, a serial rapist who has recently been released and wants revenge on Harry who killed his son.   Just when the reader is convinced as to the identity of the killer, he/she proves to have an alibi.  I was certain I knew the murderer but I was wrong. 

The revelation which comes at the end is shocking.  I never suspected this person at all.  What is great about the book is that all the clues are there.  It’s not that Nesbø withholds information; it’s just that the reader may not pick up on the clues because they are so subtly mentioned. 

The book is layered in that there are several subplots.  Besides the main case, there’s the background of Rakel’s boss whom Harry comes to know, a man suffering from PTSD.  We learn about his experiences as a member of the Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan.  There’s a sub-plot involving Dagney Jensen who is raped by Svein Finne.  There’s a sub-plot involving Johan Krohn, Finne’s lawyer.  In the end, all the stories connect in a very satisfying way.

Nesbø writes in such a way that passages can be interpreted in more than one way.  For instance, one character says to another, “’You shouldn’t have told anyone what you saw . . . That’s why I have to kill you.  You wouldn’t forget.  I wouldn’t forget’” (236).  The impression is that the speaker is going to kill someone to protect himself from further revelations that might implicate him in some crime.  But that is not the case.  This technique is used several times.

The one issue I have is the number of women who fall in love with Harry.  He’s a troubled alcoholic depressive and is notorious for self-destructive behaviour, yet women keep falling in love with him.  There’s Rakel, of course, but there are three other women in the novel who have romantic feelings for this emotionally damaged man. 

This book can be read as a standalone, but reading previous novels gives a lot of important background which gives an added dimension to this book.  Several of the characters who appear are introduced much earlier in the series. 

A mystery or police procedural is not a book I would normally re-read, but this is one that is worth re-reading.