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18th out of 102 books
—
185 voters
The Devil's Star (Harry Hole #5)
by
Jo Nesbø
A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star - a pentagram, the devil's star.
Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the...more
Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the...more
Paperback, 528 pages
Published
July 6th 2006
by Vintage
(first published 2003)
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Book 3, in the Harry Hole series
This captivating Scandinavian crime fiction is an excellent police procedural with a great plot that deals with a Norwegian serial killer and a tormented alcoholic protagonist who is about to lose his job and along with it, his relationship and his sanity.
It opens with a serial killer on the loose in Oslo. The killer cuts off his victims’ fingers and leaves a tiny five corner red diamond shaped star as his signature.
This very sophisticated plot with many interest...more
This captivating Scandinavian crime fiction is an excellent police procedural with a great plot that deals with a Norwegian serial killer and a tormented alcoholic protagonist who is about to lose his job and along with it, his relationship and his sanity.
It opens with a serial killer on the loose in Oslo. The killer cuts off his victims’ fingers and leaves a tiny five corner red diamond shaped star as his signature.
This very sophisticated plot with many interest...more
Niente niente male il Nesbo. Lessi Nemesi qualche tempo fa piaciuto anch'esso assai (a parte i refusi e la scarsa cura dell'edizione).
Anche questo suo si legge che é un piacere, la qualità della scrittura però non é omogenea, ci sono picchi e ci sono zone piatte, ma insomma non si può avere tutto dalla vita.
E' comunque un bel thriller ben costruito, avvincente, che non ti fa rimpiangere le ore che gli hai dedicato a leggerlo. E con i tempi che corrono non é cosa da poco.
Anche questo suo si legge che é un piacere, la qualità della scrittura però non é omogenea, ci sono picchi e ci sono zone piatte, ma insomma non si può avere tutto dalla vita.
E' comunque un bel thriller ben costruito, avvincente, che non ti fa rimpiangere le ore che gli hai dedicato a leggerlo. E con i tempi che corrono non é cosa da poco.
Feb 15, 2013
Katsumi
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-crime-thriller
This book is wonderful. Harry Hole, the main character is unlike any detective we read about in American books: he is an alcoholic, confused, scared,and rejected detective, but he has brilliant insights from tiny bits of evidence which he slowly puts together to solve a series of bloody murders, each involving a red star-shaped diamond, called a Devil's Star, hence the title. The writing is crisp, the settings are well described, and the plot keeps you turning pages. Near the end, he is running...more
The 2nd best of the Inspector Harry Hole series......of those read so far. It starts very slowly with Harry deep in an alcoholic haze that he seems unable to exit following the trauma he has experienced in the previous 2 books in this mid series sub-plot trilogy. This early portion of the book takes up near;y 125 pages, so bear with it as it gets better and better.
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Here's the thing about the recent popularity of Scandinavian writers and if you're a Nordic Thriller aficionado you couldn't care less about the distinction: the novels are depressed, somber, filled with ennui, a lack of humor, with flawed characters if not suffused with a strong tendency towards determinism; in short, whether you're reading Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, or Jo Nesbo you are likely reading Literary Naturalism. If you live in Scandinavia you might consider this par for the cours...more
Mankell's Wallander is going to have to take it up a few notches if he wants to play ball with Harry Hole!
Jo Nesbo is in a league of his own. His plots are fast-paced, action-packed, and full of twists and turns that you won't see coming. I love the fact that I have never able to predict the ending of any of his novels. Nesbo's lead character, Harry Hole is a man who struggles with his vices. Despite his shortcomings and addictions, he is a good man and the best detective on the force.
In the De...more
Jo Nesbo is in a league of his own. His plots are fast-paced, action-packed, and full of twists and turns that you won't see coming. I love the fact that I have never able to predict the ending of any of his novels. Nesbo's lead character, Harry Hole is a man who struggles with his vices. Despite his shortcomings and addictions, he is a good man and the best detective on the force.
In the De...more
Review - The Devil's Star (Harry Hole Fifth book)
The Devil's Star is a contemporary modern day crime plot with all its darker elements, filled with emotion, fast paced, suspenseful, the puzzle grips, builds, festers and twists keeping the mind ticking over until the very end. The author Jo Nesbø brings us into his opening scene, Oslo, current day a young women has been found murdered in her Oslo flat, shot, Index finger removed and a curious tiny diamond shaped like a five pointed star placed b...more
The Devil's Star is a contemporary modern day crime plot with all its darker elements, filled with emotion, fast paced, suspenseful, the puzzle grips, builds, festers and twists keeping the mind ticking over until the very end. The author Jo Nesbø brings us into his opening scene, Oslo, current day a young women has been found murdered in her Oslo flat, shot, Index finger removed and a curious tiny diamond shaped like a five pointed star placed b...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I was looking for new authors to read and came across a detective series based in Norway, with the lead player a detective called, Harry Hole, (I kid you not). I have read three of the series and really enjoyed them. Not your typical cop drama, bit rough,shows the gritty side of life...
Love it. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. Harry Hole is a great character with all his faults and additions. I loved all the twists and turns in the book. Bits did get predictable but I still loved it.
I don't understand why the media and publishers say Nesbo is the next Steig Larrson, cos their writing styles are very different to me. Maybe because they are both Scandinavian.
I don't understand why the media and publishers say Nesbo is the next Steig Larrson, cos their writing styles are very different to me. Maybe because they are both Scandinavian.
I came to The Devil’s Star having previously read The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, partly to find out if my initial impressions of this author’s work had been correct. They had.
This is an American style hard-boiled detective story that is nominally set in Oslo, although might as well not be. Apart from the characters’ and places’ names there is no sense of location in the detail and the culture portrayed is ‘urban anywhere’—so, disappointingly the same rather than different.
To be fair this is a well wri...more
This is an American style hard-boiled detective story that is nominally set in Oslo, although might as well not be. Apart from the characters’ and places’ names there is no sense of location in the detail and the culture portrayed is ‘urban anywhere’—so, disappointingly the same rather than different.
To be fair this is a well wri...more
Harry Hole is a Norwegian detective about to be canned. He's an alcoholic, lost his lover, laid out of work for a month, and can't get his act together. His boss covers for him, but he's about had it with Harry.
Then a woman is murdered, a finger amputated, and a star-shaped red diamond placed under her eyelid. Harry's assigned the case, but he must work with a cop he knows is crooked, a cop who's heir-apparent to the chief, a cop he's had no luck bringing down. His depression deepens.
Still, Harr...more
Then a woman is murdered, a finger amputated, and a star-shaped red diamond placed under her eyelid. Harry's assigned the case, but he must work with a cop he knows is crooked, a cop who's heir-apparent to the chief, a cop he's had no luck bringing down. His depression deepens.
Still, Harr...more
After hearing so many good reviews and positive feedback about this book, I was quite excited to read it. I was quite disappointed. I only got about three quarters of the way through. I couldn't stick through to the end!
Whilst the plot itself isn't a bad one, the book itself is painfully slow. The scenes are quite choppy with new and insignificant characters being added randomly through out the book. It didn't flow smoothly as every time a new minor character was added we would be given a small...more
Whilst the plot itself isn't a bad one, the book itself is painfully slow. The scenes are quite choppy with new and insignificant characters being added randomly through out the book. It didn't flow smoothly as every time a new minor character was added we would be given a small...more
If you enjoy crime fiction, you know that most of today's writers have one or more series based on a particular character. In so many cases, the books build on one another. When I start a new author with the newest book, inevitably there are a lot of questions in my mind. The fact that I started with his third book (at least in translation) didn't diminish my enjoyment. Reading Nesbo is something of a challenge. He's probably one of the most cerebral crime writers I've read. There's a lot going...more
Norwegian author Jo Nesbø made a big splash now after Stieg Larsson successful "Millenium trilogy" became publishing phenomenon - since Larsson is sadly deceased,attention focused on another writer from the north of Europe and Nesbø is advertised as "new Stieg Larsson". Well,not exactly.
Apparently Nesbø already wrote a whole series of successful crimi novels so this is just one of them,however this was my first introduction to his writing and I must say that I find them incredibly slow and suffe...more
Apparently Nesbø already wrote a whole series of successful crimi novels so this is just one of them,however this was my first introduction to his writing and I must say that I find them incredibly slow and suffe...more
Jo Nesbo has written a real winner in The Devil's Star. What a great read this is with fleshed-out characters, both likable and repellent, a complex mystery and an even more complex sub-mystery. The dialogue is crisp and convincing. Everything moves along briskly. There is a web of interwoven trails and false leads. Harry Hole is the protagonist, an alcoholic cop in Olso, obsessed with avenging the death of his ex-partner to the point of alienating everyone who loves and cares for him.
It is summ...more
It is summ...more
The publishers in the English speaking world are trying to promote Jo Nesbo, for obvious reasons, as the next Stieg Larsson. Well, that is, to say the least, ironic since the former came on the scene ten years earlier than the latter.
Anyway, let’s just skip that and focus on the novel at hand. The main protagonist here is Harry Hole, an alcoholic detective who’s spent most of his adult life making one mistake after the other. Now, exactly because of his intoxication he seems to be at the twilig...more
Anyway, let’s just skip that and focus on the novel at hand. The main protagonist here is Harry Hole, an alcoholic detective who’s spent most of his adult life making one mistake after the other. Now, exactly because of his intoxication he seems to be at the twilig...more
Another installment in the Harry Hole series set in Norway. It’s summer in Oslo and while everyone is sweltering, someone is leaving bodies with one finger cut off and a red diamond in the shape of a pentagram. When a diamond isn’t left, a pentagram is carved on a wall. Through several books, Harry has a nemesis—a fellow detective, Tom Waaler, who has a bright future in the minds of the higher-ups, and a distaste for Harry’s habit of showing up drunk. I had read two other Harry books and don’t r...more
Jul 26, 2011
Ian Young
added it
I’ve been slow arriving at Jo Nesbo’s Scandinavian crime fiction, and his detective Harry Hole. The books have ridden high in the UK fiction charts over the last year. Nesbo has been likened by some to Steig Larsson, which is unfair since he is a well-established and very successful crime writer in how own right, with a significant body of published work behind him. Devil’s Star is not the first in the series, and may not have been the best place to start, but from what I have read it is typical...more
May 29, 2011
Kathleen Hagen
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011-audio-books,
2011-mysteries
The Devil’s Star, by Jo Nesbo, a-minus, narrated by Robin Sachs, produced by Random House Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
And here we get the end of the saga started in Redbreast. Harry has spent the last two years trying to pin down Tom Waaler’s movements and tie them to his partner’s death in the first book. In the meantime, girls start disappearing, but in each case a finger is found from the girls. Harry, almost singlehandedly, has to track down and unmask the real serial killer, work out...more
And here we get the end of the saga started in Redbreast. Harry has spent the last two years trying to pin down Tom Waaler’s movements and tie them to his partner’s death in the first book. In the meantime, girls start disappearing, but in each case a finger is found from the girls. Harry, almost singlehandedly, has to track down and unmask the real serial killer, work out...more
Harry Hole is a detective in Oslo, Norway. He is an alcoholic and is about to be sacked from the Police Force as a result. It is summer, and the police numbers are down as everyone has gone on holidays. When a woman is found murdered – Harry’s boss has no choice but to call Harry in to assist with the investigation. However Harry has a problem (other than the alcoholism) the man leading the investigation is Tom Waaler, and Harry believes that Tom murdered his former partner. It is this belief th...more
I read my first Jo Nesbo book a couple of years ago (The Redeemer) and absolutely loved his recurring character - Detective Harry Hole. Nesbo is a an award winning Norwegian writer whose books are making a splash in North America as well.
The Devil's Star opens with a deliciously drawn scene that starts the book in a most unexpected way. With no one else to call on, Inspector Moller sends Harry Hole to the scene - it looks like a minor incident. It turns out to be anything but....
Seemingly random...more
The Devil's Star opens with a deliciously drawn scene that starts the book in a most unexpected way. With no one else to call on, Inspector Moller sends Harry Hole to the scene - it looks like a minor incident. It turns out to be anything but....
Seemingly random...more
The Devil's Star continues the story of police detective Harry Hole, who has been in such other Nesbo novels as The Redbreast and Nemesis. Harry is a mess; he is an alcoholic, too involved in his work (and about to get fired), and these flaws have distanced him from his girlfriend and her young son.
When women are found murdered in Oslo, a serial killer is on the loose, and Hole must work with a detective he believes is involved in the death of his former partner. Her death precipitated his decli...more
When women are found murdered in Oslo, a serial killer is on the loose, and Hole must work with a detective he believes is involved in the death of his former partner. Her death precipitated his decli...more
While a huge chunk of the planet has made Stieg Larrsson the new J.K. Rowling I have been attending a different church, The House of Jo Nesbo.
Harry Hole is Nesbo's man. He's a loner, he drinks, he's prickly, he doesn't like authority and cannot successfully sustain a romantic relationship. In other words he has all the attributes of the cliche copper according to detective fiction. What makes him different? Jo Nesbo. In another writer's hands Harry would be the any one of a thousand detectives...more
Harry Hole is Nesbo's man. He's a loner, he drinks, he's prickly, he doesn't like authority and cannot successfully sustain a romantic relationship. In other words he has all the attributes of the cliche copper according to detective fiction. What makes him different? Jo Nesbo. In another writer's hands Harry would be the any one of a thousand detectives...more
May 18, 2010
Tony
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-crime-detection
Nesbo, Jo. THE DEVIL’S STAR. (2003; Eng. Ed. 2010). ****. This is another fast-paced crime novel from this Norwegian author who seems to be gathering quite a crew of fans throughout the world. It’s the third Harry Hole episode to come out in English, and, presumably there are more in the works. Harry Hole is a wreck. He is obsessed about the killing of a former woman police officer who was his partner. He believes that one of his coworkers on the force was behind it and did it to protect his sid...more
I received this book from Goodreads and am so thankful that I did! Jo Nesbo has written a real winner in The Devil’s Star. What a great read this is with fleshed-out characters, both likable and repellent, a complex mystery and an even more complex sub-mystery. The dialog is crisp and convincing. Everything moves along briskly. There is a web of interwoven trails and false leads. Harry Hole is the protagonist, an alcoholic cop in Olso obsessed with avenging the death of his partner to the point...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jo Nesbø is one of the best writers of Scandinavian crime fiction out there today.
summary, no spoilers:
Set in Oslo, Devil's Star features Detective Harry Hole, whose life started zooming out of control when his friend and fellow detective, Ellen Gjelten was murdered while working a case. Harry has spent much of the time since in an alcoholic stupor, neglecting his work to try to catch Ellen's killer, and putting his personal life in the trash. He knows who murdered Ellen, but proving it is a w...more
summary, no spoilers:
Set in Oslo, Devil's Star features Detective Harry Hole, whose life started zooming out of control when his friend and fellow detective, Ellen Gjelten was murdered while working a case. Harry has spent much of the time since in an alcoholic stupor, neglecting his work to try to catch Ellen's killer, and putting his personal life in the trash. He knows who murdered Ellen, but proving it is a w...more
In Oslo, our hero, the very, very human Inspector Harry Hole, is trying to survive his alcoholism one day at a time, or is that one bottle at a time? But self-medicating against regular nightmares about horrific events in his past cannot kill the pain, or lessen his fears. His career is on the skids and his soul is under constant pressure from a dark-side member of the force. Hole’s obsession with work has alienated the woman he loves. His need to prove that a fellow cop is responsible for the d...more
The grungy, alcoholic Harry Hole at his most gross so far in my reading experience. Also the story was kind of convoluted. The book starts with this pre-quel about a plasterer that kind of returns in the end, but the connection was very tenuous. I've gotten accustomed to Nesbo's technique of showing the reader the culprit, but kind of off-center, or skewed, early in the book. So that's actually kind of getting a little tiresome for me. The protagonist, Hole, always sees just a wee bit more in ma...more
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Jo Nesbø is a bestselling Norwegian author and musician. He was born in Oslo and grew up in Molde. Nesbø graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics with a degree in economics. Nesbø is primarily famous for his crime novels about Detective Harry Hole, but he is also the main vocals and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre. In 2007 Nesbø also released his first children's book, Dokt...more
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“It was as if the demise of the owner had lent the flat a physical void it hadn't had before. At the same time he had the feeling that he wasn't alone. Harry believed in the existence of the soul. Not that he was particularly religious as such, but it was one thing which always struck him when he saw a dead body: the body was bereft of something...the creature had gone, the light had gone,there was not the illusory afterglow that long-since burned-out stars have. The body was missing its soul and it was the absence of the soul that made Harry believe.”
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3 people liked it
“...stereotypes were self-reinforcing because unconsciously you were looking for things to confirm them. That was why policemen thought – based on so-called experience – that all criminals were stupid, and criminals thought the same about all policemen.”
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1 person liked it
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