The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel Author: Jo Nesbo | Language: English | ISBN:
0307743187 | Format: EPUB
The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel Description
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2011: At the end of his previous thriller, The Snowman, Jo Nesbo's Inspector Harry Hole was a ravaged mess. At the start of The Leopard, we find Hole hiding away from the world, smoking opium in the squalor of Hong Kong's back alleys. A pretty young police officer drags him reluctantly back to Norway to pursue another serial killer, this one more twisted and vicious than the Snowman. Despite some far-fetched scenes, Hole is a damaged, soulful, and believable character. And Nesbo is proving to be a major talent, an eloquent writer who,, with the end of Steig Larsson's trilogy and the retirement of Henning Mankell's brooding detective Kurt Wallander, seems poised to become heir to the title "King of the Nordic thriller." --Neal Thompson
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
A Booklist Best Crime Novel of 2012
"Maddeningly addictive." --Vanity Fair
“Meaty, gripping, full of tantalizing twists.” —Associated Press
“A true page-turner, and a worthy sequel to The Snowman.” —Newark Star-Ledger
“The Leopard rewards you with a finale as unexpected and thought-provoking as any in recent mystery-fiction memory.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A cracking good thriller. . . . Immerse yourself and enjoy the ride.” —The Guardian (London)
“The action in The Leopard sweeps from a volcano in Africa to the remotest snow-covered mountains of Norway, but many of the novel’s best parts involve Harry’s silent struggles. . . . There’s always a twist, always a surprise, always a variation on a theme.” —The Dallas Morning News
“Nesbø also deepens the central mystery at the heart of Harry’s pursuits: which is not so much the truth about himself, but rather, whether he can learn to live with that truth. He is a giant of the Scandinavian mystery.” —The Boston Globe
“Outstanding. . . . Nesbø moves the action easily from Hong Kong to Norway, with side trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo, without ever losing the plot's sense of urgency.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
“This one stands up to the ante one more time. . . . Crime fiction’s most tortured and compelling hero. Alas, no armor exists strong enough to keep Harry from his demons, or the rest of us from Harry.” —Booklist (starred)
“Comparisons with Stieg Larsson have been made, but Nesbø’s plots move quickly, carry more punch, and really do keep you guessing to the final page.” —Daily Mirror
“The Leopard’s unflagging narrative tension, breathtaking surprises and many confrontations with half-suspected treachery . . . are superb.” —The Independent
See all Editorial Reviews
- Series: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
- Paperback: 688 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; First Edition/ First Printing edition (June 26, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9780307743183
- ISBN-13: 978-0307743183
- ASIN: 0307743187
- Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Again and again, author Jo Nesbo throws so many surprises at you and in such rapid succession that the unexpected becomes (almost) expected.
In "The Leopard" a character says, "no one is as they seem, and most of life, apart from honest betrayal, is lies and deceit." The same could be said of the story and its many twists and reversals.
Two thirds the way through this big (600 hardback pages) everything seems to be wrapped up but you expect - and you'll be right on - that our Norwegian sleuth Harry Hole (pronounced Whole-Lay, if you please) has a lot more sleuthing to do and more mayhem to deal with before all is revealed and everything explained. American readers are at an added disadvantage because we need to deal with the Norwegian names and locales. As usual with a Nesbo crime thriller, I started taking notes as soon as I opened the book.
We meet up with Hole in Hong Kong where he's gone to wallow in guilt and misery and punish himself physically and mentally after the devastating events in "The Snowman." We also meet Kaja Solness, a member of the Oslo crime squad who has been dispatched to collect Hole and bring him back where he's needed to help solve a number of grisly murders that have all the earmarks of a serial killer.
I prefer some nuance in my thrillers, some mental stimulation, plot intricacies that require thought and the application of logic. I prefer to have more than just sensation, thrills and a high body count resulting from the use of truly gruesome, grisly devices designed for torture and murder.
In the "The Leopard," Nesbo stretches credulity and tests the bounds of plausibility with a nasty apple-sized killing device that registers nearly off the scale on the shock-horror meter.
I've read all of the books in the Harry Hole series that have been translated into English and I'm not crazy about the direction Nesb? is taking in the most recent titles, and particularly this one.
First, the good things. I admire Nesb?'s ability to depict broken people. He strips Harry down his soul, it seems, and makes us see the pain there. He's so good at showing the quiet, tender feelings Harry has for Rakel, Oleg, his father and some of the other people in his life. In this book, Nesb? gets into the complexities of Harry's relationship with his father, and this is very affecting. Nesb? has given us a lot of terrific female characters for Harry to work with over the course of this series, too: Ellyn, Beate, Katrine and now Kaja.
When I started reading the Harry Hole series, one thing that struck me was how well Nesb? got into the mind of the killer and made his actions comprehensible and sometimes even made him almost sympathetic. The murders were always very human murders.
Increasingly, I feel like Nesb? is getting away from the humanness in his killers and even, in a way, in Harry. Presenting us in recent books with serial killers and bizarre and elaborate murder methods is distancing. I feel like the books are becoming more sensationalistic and less real.
Every book requires the reader to have a certain suspension of disbelief. You enter the world the author has created, knowing it is fiction, but willing to go along with the story and identify with its people, time and place. Nesb? made that suspension of disbelief difficult for me with this book.
The long scenes of gruesome torture and murder seem like something out of an exploitation movie and are alienating to me.
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