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Nemesis

(Harry Hole #4)

Jo Nesbø (Goodreads Author),

Don Bartlett (Translator)

3.98 · Rating details · 67,098 ratings · 2,887 reviews

“Nesbø’s storytelling abilities are incomparable. Nemesis is crime novel as art form and great entertainment.”
—USA Today

The #1 international bestseller from one of the most celebrated crime writers in Europe--the New York Times bestselling author of The Snowman--Jo Nesbø’s extraordinary thriller Nemesis features Norwegian homicide detective Harry Hole, “the next in the lon

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Kindle Edition, 482 pages

Published January 9th 2009 by HarperCollins e-books (first published 2002)

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Jun 10, 2016 Lyn rated it liked it · review of another edition

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good.

Jo Nesbo’s surly and reclusive Norwegian detective Harry Hole (pronounced Hooleh) is back in 2002’s Nemesis. Nesbo established Hole in The Bat and Cockroaches and then produced a phenomenal novel with his 2000 novel The Redbreast – one the genre’s best, akin to Stieg Larsson in narrative quality. Hole is engaged to investigate a bank robbery that went wrong, resulting in the death of a bank teller. A wider network of evil is uncovered and Hole is heavily ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Matthew rated it it was ok

Shelves: library, 2016, kindle, suspense, mystery

Yet another series I keep pushing through, hoping it will get better because I have heard so many good things. This one fell completely flat. The story was disjointed. I didn't understand the relationships between the characters. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on or why. I understood the resolution, but I don't think I cared anymore. I spent the last 200 pages or so on autopilot feeling like it ended about 20 times but at the same time feeling like it was never going to end.

I wil ...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Robert rated it it was ok

Shelves: kindle-deals, robert-s-reads

Sometimes I feel as though I’m genetically hardwired to be a contrarian. Not because I actually like being different than everyone else or going against popular opinion, nor do I actually want to stand on the mountaintop and scream “All you fuckers are wrong.” Because let’s face it, it’s easy to follow everyone else, to march in line and in step, even if it sometimes means you’re headed for a cliff or the occasional mountain lion. Nor do I get some sort of sick, demented pleasure from bashing ot Sometimes I feel as though I’m genetically hardwired to be a contrarian. Not because I actually like being different than everyone else or going against popular opinion, nor do I actually want to stand on the mountaintop and scream “All you fuckers are wrong.” Because let’s face it, it’s easy to follow everyone else, to march in line and in step, even if it sometimes means you’re headed for a cliff or the occasional mountain lion. Nor do I get some sort of sick, demented pleasure from bashing other authors and other people’s books, because I’m right there in the trenches with you, buddy. Not necessarily holding your hand, but we’re in the same foxhole, staring out at the same battlefield, and trying to make heads or tails of the opposition. Not that writing is a war, but it sometimes feels that way, to get those pesky words down on paper, and then actually have others get behind the words that you have written, until they make them their own.

So what does all of this mean for NEMESIS? Well, if you’re looking at the date I started this novel (by the way, that is not a misprint), and the day I finished it (that’s not a misprint either), there’s a massive gap between the two. Where I know I had plenty of fun, and most of this fun was had while not reading said novel. Does that mean it’s badly written? No, absolutely not. But it felt repetitive and redundant, and I was never fully engaged in the story. To be honest, it wasn’t even really all that close of a call. But I wanted to be engaged, I wanted to be fully invested, and I wanted to like this story, because so many others have called it a great and wondrous read with high ratings and glowing reviews. But I just can’t consider myself one of them. Maybe I was built with a different set of Legos.

You see, the characters resembled emotionless pits; the dialogue felt trite and pedestrian; the plot plunked along like a Corvette ambling down the train tracks on a Sunday afternoon, to the point that I had to reread the back cover copy to figure out what it was I had just finished; and I ended up so lost within the twists and turns of the story that I forgot where the heck I even was.

If I were to sum up this novel, I’d say it made me want to kick Justin Bieber. Which isn’t that much different from how I normally feel. What I really want to find is the novel that makes me want to hug the Biebs. I’m thinking it’s not possible, but I’m going to continue to hold out hope that it’s out there somewhere, and I will continue to expend energy looking for it.

Cross-posted at Robert's Reads ...more

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Aug 04, 2015 Edward Lorn rated it it was ok

Upon completing this book, I rated it three stars. After a month's time and much thought, I cannot say that I really liked it all that much. I've decided to drop my rating to two stars, and here's why:

I was nowhere near as impressed with Nemesis as I was Harry Hole's previous outing, The Redbreast. This one was nothing more than your average detective/bank heist story. The emotional impact of the tale did not match the previous installment either. But I think I mostly didn't care for this story ...more

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Jul 14, 2015 Phrynne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a big, thick chunky book but I raced through it. On the cover Jo Nesbø is likened to Stieg Larsson but he is nothing like. Nesbø wastes not a single word in description or lengthy explanation. He just tells a great story with plenty of action and lots of great police work. I really enjoy Harry Hole as a character. He may be flawed but he must be nice because all the best people like him and the bad ones do not. And although he makes plenty of mistakes - he has to otherwise there would no ...more

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Jan 22, 2017 Barbara rated it liked it · review of another edition

In this 4th book in the 'Harry Hole' series, the detective gets involved in dual investigations. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo police is an alcoholic who's trying to stay on the wagon. That's hard for the detective, who tends to follow his own rules and infuriates his bosses. In this book Harry gets involved with two investigations: a bank heist that left a female employee dead; and the alleged suicide of a young woman.

To investigate the bank robbery ...more

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Jul 26, 2020 Ken rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'm four books into Nesbø's popular Harry Hole series and even though I've liked all of them so far, they haven't quite wowed me as much as I'd hoped.

One thing that I really do like about this series is Hole himself, the flawed protagonist with his demons with alcohol is very much the focus of these stories.
The fact that he wakes up with no recollection from the previous evening's dinner with an old flame instantly makes his colleges think his been drinking again.
When her body is found in myster ...more

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Dec 16, 2014 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nesbø continues to dazzle with his wonderful Harry Hole series, in this fourth novel. When a single individual enters a bank and takes the female teller hostage, demands are made to empty an ATM full of money. Using the hostage to disguise their voice, the robber offer an ultimatum that cannot be completed in the specified time, and the teller is killed. With the Robbery Division unable to make any progress on the case, it is sent to Harry Hole and video evidence expert, Beate Lønn as a murder i Nesbø continues to dazzle with his wonderful Harry Hole series, in this fourth novel. When a single individual enters a bank and takes the female teller hostage, demands are made to empty an ATM full of money. Using the hostage to disguise their voice, the robber offer an ultimatum that cannot be completed in the specified time, and the teller is killed. With the Robbery Division unable to make any progress on the case, it is sent to Harry Hole and video evidence expert, Beate Lønn as a murder investigation. With Hole's girlfriend, Rakel, in Russia fighting for custody of her son, Harry agrees to have dinner with a former lover, Anna, who reappears out of the blue and wants a platonic chat. Waking up at home the next morning with all the signs of a massive hangover, Hole is shocked to learn that Anna apparently committed suicide the night before. However, some of the evidence points at a potential murder, covering up to confuse everyone. Keeping this under wraps, Harry engages in an off-the-books investigation and reaches out to a member of Anna's family, who is in prison for previous bank robberies, promising to solve her murder if insight on the bank robberies can be provided. As Lønn discovers the intimate closeness of the robber and teller through analysis of the video surveillance, she surmises that they must have known one another. When further heists are completed and no teller is harmed, Hole and Lønn agree that this first robbery held a special component; the teller. After heading around the world to follow a lead in South America, Hole and Lønn appear to close the case when they find a confession in a suicide note from the teller's brother-in-law. Returning to Norway, Hole is contacted through anonymous email servers by someone calling themselves S2MN. All traces point back to Hole, who cannot remember what happened with Anna, though he is fairly certain that he is innocent. However, fellow police officer Tom Waaler trips on some evidence that could implicate Hole and a warrant is issued for our protagonist's arrest. Hole dodges his colleagues to clear his name and trips on a key piece of evidence staring him in the face. All the while, someone by the name of the Prince has Hole in his crosshairs, killing those who might be able to uncover the truth behind Hole's former partner's murder. Nesbø offers the reader a wonderful omniscient view into this and all other storylines in this jam-packed novel with a final chapter that may bring Hole and the Prince into a massive stand-off. A sensation second book of an imbedded trilogy within the larger Harry Hole series.

There is no question that Nesbø is a sensational writer. That his books can be so addictive in a language other than the original adds to their greatness. The Harry Hole character is highly complex on many levels, from his alcoholism through to his past lovers and struggles with work. Nesbø offers ongoing insights into the dark world of Hole's life and his attention to detail to solve the most complicated of cases. Building on this and other periphery characters within Hole's sphere, Nesbø offers detailed character development that will only draw the reader closer to the protagonist. The reader finds themselves fully involved in the plot and the multiple storylines on offer. The reader must pay close attention in order to sift through the busy narrative and Hole's varied activities. I find myself wanting to reach for the next novel to discover how the Prince storyline ends, or if it will continue for the rest of the series.

Kudos Mr. Nesbø for another wonderful novel. You are a master, no matter what language in which you are read.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/ ...more

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Apr 25, 2019 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nordic-noir

Nemesis is the fourth instalment of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole detective series and I must say this series keeps getting better. In Nemesis, Harry is working to clear his name when one of his previous girlfriends is found dead, while also working in a parallel storyline on a series of bank robberies/murders.

I do find that I have to keep my wits about me while reading Nesbo's books, often needing to thumb back a few chapters to reread bits and pieces that may have seemed insignificant at the time. It ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: jo-nesbo, police-stories, 2018, harry-hole

This is indeed one of the more complex books Jo Nesbo has written about his anti-hero Harry Hole. But it is still a great read and for people that do like serious and original police-novels or thrillers this a must-read book.

Harry Hole is revisited by an old girlfriend from his more addictive years and somehow she ends up dead and Harry is the most obvious perpetrator.

A bank gets robbed and a women working in the bank gets killed in cold blood for no obvious reason but the manager was too slow i ...more

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Aug 21, 2020 Dave Schaafsma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-detective-thriller, nordic-noir

Nemesis, the fourth in the Harry Hole series (and finally pronounced correctly [close to “hoo-leh] for the first time in the audiotaped versions of these books I am listening to), has a lot going on. I think too much, really, which is not to say it isn’t created by a talented writer. By the third book, The Redbreast, the best one so far, he began to really prove himself, with rich novelistic themes and multiple threads and real political and historical stakes. And this one has multiple threads, Nemesis, the fourth in the Harry Hole series (and finally pronounced correctly [close to “hoo-leh] for the first time in the audiotaped versions of these books I am listening to), has a lot going on. I think too much, really, which is not to say it isn’t created by a talented writer. By the third book, The Redbreast, the best one so far, he began to really prove himself, with rich novelistic themes and multiple threads and real political and historical stakes. And this one has multiple threads, too; it just feels like too many threads. Keep down that thread count, Jo!

But allow me to make my case. This book is about:

*Harry’s continued struggles with alcoholism (though it is not really clear what happens the night his ex, Ann, is killed, after he has seen her for dinner and has spent time at her house. Blackout? He assumes so.
* Harry’s continued struggles with women. Oh, yeah, Anna. At the end of Redbreast Harry is happily with Rakel and her eight-year-old son Oleg. In this one, she is in Russia, so he of course agrees to meet his old girlfriend, Anna, and he has no idea what happened (and we don’t either) that night. Was he unfaithful to Rakel? There’s a new cute colleague (who has a photographic memory), a possible temptation. Every attractive woman he meets is a threat to his equilibrium. At the heart of it is Rakel and whether he can stick it out with her.
*Harry’s continued struggles with violence. One aspect of this is that he makes mistakes that get him beat up in every book. He can be very violent, too.
*Harry’s continued struggles with breaking the law in order to solve crimes, such as hiding the fact that he was (one of the?) last people Anna saw. He makes a deal with an imprisoned criminal, a Romany gypsy, who is in an international crime syndicate.
*Yeah, we’re all over the world, not only in Oslo but Moscow and Brazil; feels a bit like Bond in that way, though more low-life, noir, of course. Bond has flaws but neither Bond nor Fleming admit he has many. Harry is likeable, but is WAY flawed. Likeable, impassioned, talented, but he makes lots of mistakes to be a cop that the brass likes.
*Harry’s continued struggles with being an outsider, one who can'f fit in the police organization very well.
*The central theme is Nemesis, a Greek revenge myth. Who/what is Harry’s nemesis? His colleague Tom Waaler who looks like David Hasselhoff? Alcoholism? Infidelity? Someone who seems to be killing some of the women he falls in love with over these now four books? But a central theme is revenge, for sure.
*There’s a series of bank robberies and murders Harry and the police in general are trying to solve; this is the central crime focus of the book, actually. Could we have just stuck with this? Nope, Nesbo says.
*Harry is busy, in all this; he has to protect Rakel in Moscow from the Bad Guys who theatent o kill her.
*Harry is always trying to figure who killed his first wife, Ellen; this is always on-going in the books as a continuing issue.
*There’s a running psych theme of suicide; people are struggling with it, Harry goes to see a psychologist to get some background on why people do it. Is there such a thing as revenge suicide?
*There’s a “Purple Rain” theme throughout. Nesbo is, besides being a thriller writer, a rock musician. so e music figures in throughout.
*Harry is reading Nesbo’s fave crime writer, Jim Thompson; someone also references Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry (they both break rules). These last two issues are not a problem, just threads he weaves in.

This is book 4 of Nesbo for me, and I’d say 3.5 instead of 4 star rating because of its over-ambition, but you have to give him credit for trying to do all this at once, for sure. Not many can do it, of course. And not many should, either, I'd say. I will read more of him, though. I am going to at least read The Leopard and The Snowman, as others think these are his best. Now, for fun, I am going to read Nemesis by Agatha Christie, where I can compare the wits of Harry Hole to Jane Marple. Identical twins? ...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Paul Curd rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-edition, crime-and-mystery, fiction

There really should be a health warning or spoiler alert printed on the cover of this book. It is the third of Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series of detective novels to be translated into English. The first was The Devil's Star, but actually The Devil's Star turns out to be the third in the series and very much the sequel to Nemesis. For some reason, the novels have been translated and published in the UK out of sequence (I guess the reason is they published the best one first to test the water . . .) There really should be a health warning or spoiler alert printed on the cover of this book. It is the third of Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series of detective novels to be translated into English. The first was The Devil's Star, but actually The Devil's Star turns out to be the third in the series and very much the sequel to Nemesis. For some reason, the novels have been translated and published in the UK out of sequence (I guess the reason is they published the best one first to test the water . . .). Unlike most detective series novels, you really do need to read Nesbø's Harry Hole books in the correct order to get the most from them. While each novel stands alone to a certain extent, there is a thread running through them that is best followed chronologically. So if you haven't read the first in the series, The Redbreast, maybe you should do so before you read this book!

Nemesis begins with grainy CCTV footage showing a masked man walking into a bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells her to count to twenty-five. When he doesn't get his money in time, she is executed. No forensic evidence is recovered, but the Oslo police treat the incident simply as a bank robbery gone wrong and the investigation is assigned to Rune Ivarsson, the arrogant Head of the Robbery Unit. Maverick detective Harry Hole, however, has spent the whole weekend studying the CCTV videotape and believes the case should be treated as a murder, which means it should be investigated by the Crime Squad (of which he is a member). As a result, Harry is temporarily attached to the Robbery Unit in a semi-detached role with a brief to pursue the case in parallel to the main investigation.

Lurking somewhere at the back of all this is an event that took place in Nesbø's earlier novel, The Redbreast. In The Redbreast, Harry's partner and close friend, Ellen Gjelten, is beaten to death with a baseball bat. As a result, Harry had an alcoholic relapse, something he is still recovering from at the start of Nemesis. In Harry's opinion, the case of Ellen's murder had never been cleared up satisfactorily. Harry had found incriminating evidence against a suspect, but before justice could take its course Inspector Tom Waaler had shot the suspect dead in an alleged fire fight. Harry doubted Waaler's story, and felt the dead suspect's motive for killing Ellen was never satisfactorily explained.

But Ellen is dead, and Harry needs a new partner. He is assigned another female detective Beate Lønn, whose father had been an Oslo cop shot on duty during a bank raid a few years earlier. When Harry first meets Beate she reminds him of a corpse Ellen and he had once fished out of Bunnefjord. Is this a foreshadowing of events to come? Will history repeat itself?

Meanwhile, Harry's girlfriend is away in Russia, sorting out a messy divorce. While she is away, and the investigation into the bank robbery/murder is just beginning, Anna an old flame gets in touch with Harry. He meets her for a drink and goes for a coffee back to her house, where he admires a series of paintings Anna is working on. She has called the paintings Nemesis, after the goddess. A few days later, Harry goes back to Anna's for dinner, but the next morning he wakes up at home with a terrible hangover and no memory of the past twelve hours. The same morning Anna is found shot dead in her bed. Harry investigates the case without revealing his association with the dead girl, but then he begins to receive threatening e-mails by someone who seems to know there is more to Anna's death than the police suspect. Is someone trying to frame him for Anna's murder?

This is a very complex (or maybe that should be complicated) novel. There are several plots and sub-plots, clues and red herrings, and many a twist and turn. It is very well written (and the translator should get an honourable mention here) and on the whole an enjoyable read. But it is a very long book at nearly 500 pages. Around about page 300 I was beginning to wilt under the complexity of it all. But just as I was starting to run out of stamina, Nesbø introduced a shocking new element relating to Ellen Gjelten's murder and reinvigorated the story.

The ending is a puzzle, and I scratched my head over it for a while before discovering that all is revealed in the third book in the series, The Devil's Star.
...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Melissa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: yikes

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 09, 2018 Jeff Dickison rated it liked it · review of another edition

I just couldn't get into this one. I don't think blackout alcoholics could be very good detectives. They couldn't catch a cold, let alone a master criminal. The plot line in this story gets so complicated as to become downright silly. I think I'll lay off Nesbo for a while. ...more

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Jul 07, 2010 James Thane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nemesis is a complex psychological thriller that weaves together the strands of two different investigations that prove to be interrelated.

When a teller is shot and killed in a dramatic bank robbery, Oslo homicide detective Harry Hole is assigned to the team investigating the crime. But Harry, a recovering alcoholic with a ton of other issues, does not work well with others and soon finds himself investigating apart from the larger team, assisted only by a young detective and video analyst, Bea ...more

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Sep 22, 2017 Amanda NEVER MANDY rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, harry-hole-and-friends

Harry makes a new friend and gets one step closer to solving the crime that matters most to him.

I really enjoyed the mystery on this one, how it split off into multiple different little mysteries and then how they all came back together in the end. I was actually quite clueless until the very last moment regarding the whodunit portion of the story. I thought I had it all sorted out but was pleasantly surprised when I realized I was wrong. *GASP* Yes, I totally did just admit to being wrong a ...more

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Dec 18, 2013 Steven Godin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavia-iceland

My first foray into Scandinavia crime noir, which seems in the last 10 years to have come out of nowhere to take the world by storm, TV as well. Nemesis is a decent read, not as dark as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but not as good either. In Harry Hole there is a detective you believe in, he has flaws like everybody else, there are moments of tension, and a good developing plot/story, where footage of a bank robbery has been looked at hundreds of times and the police searched for finger prin ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Janice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z-read-in-2014, ebooks, ylto-chunksters, mystery

Jo Nesbo keeps getting better and better!

This book is the fourth in the Harry Hole series and the second in what is called The Oslo Trilogy. The story is complex and multi-layered. It's almost breathtaking when all the pieces fall into place at the end.

It's hard to write too much without giving away spoilers. Let me just say that I think all hell is going to break loose in the next book in the series. ...more

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Jan 21, 2012 James rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, translated

Harry Hole returns in the fourth book in the series by Jo Nesbø (although only the second, translated ably, by Don Bartlett) and follows on from Redbreast . Some time has passed between the two novels, although it's not entirely clear how much - not enough to change the other people around him too much or for him to have ruined his relationship with Rakel (surely only a matter of time) or to have forgotten the murder of his partner, Ellen, but enough for there to be a new girl on the force - Harry Hole returns in the fourth book in the series by Jo Nesbø (although only the second, translated ably, by Don Bartlett) and follows on from Redbreast . Some time has passed between the two novels, although it's not entirely clear how much - not enough to change the other people around him too much or for him to have ruined his relationship with Rakel (surely only a matter of time) or to have forgotten the murder of his partner, Ellen, but enough for there to be a new girl on the force - Beate Lønn - an expert in video analysis.

Nemesis is two crimes in one; a bank robbery, where the robber executes one of the bank staff when his request to get the money within a certain amount of time isn't met. The other, an ex-girlfriend of Hole's, Anna, who he meets up with for drinks is found dead in her apartment - apparently suicide - however Hole's memory of the evening is a total blank. So while investigating the bank robbery with Lønn, he's also trying to continue the investigation into the death of Anna without implicating himself to his colleagues, and not forgetting the ongoing investigation into the death of Ellen that he's struggling to keep alive.

So far, so confusing. One cop, three cases, but, Nesbø didn't think that was confusing enough. The three cases are intertwined, common threads and characters appear and disappear from one case to another and so on. Hole's own blackouts further confuse the second case, and finally, every time Hole decides he's solved a case, you soon realise he hasn't. The two main cases both have twists, even their twists have further twists. Until you're thoroughly confused. The robbery is solved half-way through the book. I assumed this was to free up the rest of the book to concentrate on the Anna and Ellen cases, but nope, Hole's got the wrong man (and not for the last time). If you can keep up, both the main cases have very clever resolutions, although the Ellen case really never gets much further than in Redbreast - there are hints and clues provided to us the reader, but Harry never really gets anywhere. Fingers crossed that Waaler, the Prince, gets his comeuppance in the next book.

Gripping and well paced, even as confusing as it was. You're never quite sure how closely the cases are connected, or who is guilty, is getting framed, or is just lying to us, right until the end. (view spoiler) ...more

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Dec 02, 2017 Sofia rated it really liked it

Shelves: eagerly-read, crime-mystery-thriller, 2017, 4-5-stars

Watching David Suchet's Hercule Poirot tv series is like comfort food for me. I've watched the lot of them repeatedly (my family would say ad nauseum). Poirot follows his tried and tested method in most of the series/books, he searches, he finds, he ponders and keeps his card close to his chest. In the meantime I enjoy myself feeling part of the story as I follow him from here to there and discover this and that. I get most of the thrill during this part of the story, not the part where he gathe ...more

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Jan 24, 2021 Alex Cantone rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-az-titles, thriller, 2021-az-locations, 2021-read, 2020-1-misc-challenge

It took Harry ten minutes to walk from Police HQ to Kjølberggata 21A. In its time the run-down brick building had been a tannery, a printing press, a forge and probably several other things too. A reminder that Oslo had once had industry. Now Krimteknisk had taken it over. Despite new lighting and a modern interior, the building still had an industrial feel to it.

Nemesis is the fourth in the Harry Hole series by leading Norwegian author Jo Nesbø and introduces Beate Lønn, a forensic operator wit It took Harry ten minutes to walk from Police HQ to Kjølberggata 21A. In its time the run-down brick building had been a tannery, a printing press, a forge and probably several other things too. A reminder that Oslo had once had industry. Now Krimteknisk had taken it over. Despite new lighting and a modern interior, the building still had an industrial feel to it.

Nemesis is the fourth in the Harry Hole series by leading Norwegian author Jo Nesbø and introduces Beate Lønn, a forensic operator with the uncanny gift of remembering faces, as a replacement for Harry’s earlier partner, Ellen Gjelten, gunned down by an unknown assailant.

Harry’s girlfriend Rakel, is in Moscow fighting a custody battle against her former husband for her son, Oleg, and Harry - mostly sober but chain-smoking throughout - is invited over to dinner by a former flame, the artist, Anna, a Romany, disowned by her gypsy family. Harry wakes in his apartment with no memory of the events of the night, and, not surprisingly, finds himself a suspect into Anna’s death, an apparently staged suicide. He soon discovers that Anna had another “friends with benefits” who might have reason to want her dead.

The second theme is an armed hold-up of a bank, where a female teller is shot dead. Psychiatrist Ståle Aune muses on the type of behavior where this is likely to occur – a kind of “pre-programming” in the brain where events are mapped out in advance, to take place within a certain timeframe. Key witnesses are interviewed and though the case is to be handled (or mishandled) by Robbery, after poring over CCTV footage Beate Lønn convinces Harry that the teller knew her killer.

The two stories overlap when Harry attends Anna’s cremation, seeing there her only known relative, Raskol Baxhet, a mastermind behind several bank robberies before he handed himself over to police. Earlier, Ståle Aune had visited him in jail, and came off second best – which leads to some sparkling exchanges between Harry and Baxhet – a highlight of the book.

In his corner, are his boss in the Crime squad, Bjarne Møller, who defends his unconventional detective, and Harry’s childhood friend, Øystein Eikeland, taxi driver, former hippie and onetime hacker.

The taxi glided like a silent black fish through the night, through the traffic lights, beneath the street lighting and the sign indicating the city centre. ‘We can’t keep meeting like this,’ Øystein said. He looked into the mirror and watched Harry put on a black jumper he had brought from home. – ‘Got the crowbar?’ Harry asked.

And then there’s Harry’s own ‘nemesis’ – the slippery and trigger-happy inspector Tom Waaler who a year earlier shot dead Sverre Olsen, the only man who know why Ellen Gjelten had been murdered. There’s the inevitable reference to soccer (in South America this time) and as ever, Harry cheats death (twice). The entire book is littered with clever clues – yet the ending I never saw coming.

This one I enjoyed more than some other reviewers, finding it more cerebral, the killings less gruesome than in some of the later books in the series, with some very clever dialogue. Highly recommended. ...more

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Oct 21, 2014 Cathy DuPont rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Cathy by: Harry Roolart

I'm dedicating the reading of this book to my friend Harry Roolart

Harry, when he was a bit more active, pestered me until I read the first couple of books in the HH series. After that I was hooked by Harry Hole.

He is in my top three characters who I really love and enjoy reading. (This is a character from authors who are still alive and writing i.e. Michael Connelley.)

So thanks, Harry!

And remember that Harry is my "go to" person for all things Scandinavian. He can tell you how to pronounce Hole ...more

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Nov 26, 2017 LenaRibka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, mystery-suspence-thriller, nordic-noir, cultural, awards-nominee

I don’t know how how to describe what I feel at the end of the book!

I know exactly what I felt at the beginning of Nemesis (and through three quarters of the plot):

I thought, it was one of the best mystery books I ever read.

And then...the final spurt towards the finishing line...and...my initial sensations about my reading orgasm went rapidly downwards. And, believe or not, I finished it, if not confused, but more conflicted than I'd like to.

The Book#4 in the series is VERY VERY complex. Many ...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Wordsmith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Nordic Thriller Aficionados

Shelves: ranking-2012-reads-processing, part-of-series, police-procedural, lit-scandinavian, favorite, ebooks-kindle, award-winning-book-or-author, norway, star-four, bestsellers

One of The Sites Harry Is Sure To Visit At Least Once Per Novel:

  Vigeland Park Oslo, Norway

This is actually the second in the series and I have to say I found it better overall than a couple of his later ones. It is interesting going backwards and read of the events alluded to in Harry's future. Witnessing the beginning of his relationship with Rakel, probing the roots of the animosity between him and certain co-workers, indeed, the department in general. Yes, Harry gets his man. But at w One of The Sites Harry Is Sure To Visit At Least Once Per Novel:

  Vigeland Park Oslo, Norway

This is actually the second in the series and I have to say I found it better overall than a couple of his later ones. It is interesting going backwards and read of the events alluded to in Harry's future. Witnessing the beginning of his relationship with Rakel, probing the roots of the animosity between him and certain co-workers, indeed, the department in general. Yes, Harry gets his man. But at what cost? Prices can be so high and let's not forget about inflation.

A decent series, actually better than most.

Another Oslo Site I Feel I've Come To Know Very Well:

  Frogner Park Oslo, Norway

Harry does get around....

  Oslo, In The Evening:

...more

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Jul 08, 2019 Michelle Only Wants to Read rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world, audiobooks, read-2019, scandinavian-thrillers, jo-nesbo-s-darkness, thriller, series, psychological-thriller, fiction

Oh, Harry Hole... how I love thee. I have missed you! We have so much to catch up.

I loved the book. The story was great, therefore its shiny stars. Why not five? Hmmk, lemme tell you...the audiobook narrator was absolutely HORRIBLE. Monotone, flat, painful. I almost did not listen to the story because of him. Is this Nesbo's fault? Hmm...maybe. I don't know if authors have a saying on who reads their books or if they listen to them prior to the release. If it was not Nesbo I would have quit and ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Katerina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Harry under suspicion.

The best so far.

This series is exciting, varied, one visits with Harry exotic places, travels to the past, experiences his successes and failures. That makes him human, real and very interesting. I know now that Harry and I are making big friends.

A delightful change in my reading habits.

And even if the Snowman got no good movie reviews, I have to watch this soon....... ...more

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Jul 09, 2018 Exitgirl05 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I can’t belive I’ve missed review on this one! Now when I recollect of emotions and impression, I know that I was definitely hooked on Harry Hole after this book. But now after I read the entire series, I can say that this is not the brightest role of Nesbø’s (anti)hero. The side story and the plot which follows investigation of death of Harry’s partner was more interesting for me than the main crime. But still great book! And all the others which followed.

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Mar 16, 2020 Hannah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery-horror

I thoroughly enjoyed this - I like Harry Hole as a character and I love a good thriller.

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Mar 13, 2017 Girish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: immediate-read-challenge, books-owned

There are mysteries, there are thrillers and then there is the best of both worlds called Jo Nesbo books. I am officially a fan after Nemesis!

Harry Hole is part of a joint investigation with Robbery department of a bank robbery gone wrong. When the escalations in robberies happen with more daring savagery, Hole starts a parallel investigation with Boete (wonderkid) and an extremely well connected gypsy ex-robber doing time playing mind games.

That is just the beginning. He gets a call from a ex- ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 ατζινάβωτο φέγι. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Damnitt Jo, every fucking time

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Kindle British My...: Nemesis by Jo Nesbo	1	3	Feb 23, 2021 04:17AM
What gun did Alf Gunnerud have?	2	18	May 30, 2019 12:59AM
Around the Year i...: Nemesis, by Jo Nesbø	1	18	Sep 16, 2017 07:08PM
Check Sverre Olsen's hands	1	18	Sep 26, 2016 10:29AM
Who committed the other robberies then?	13	209	Jul 21, 2016 07:36AM
Elmer and Vigdis spoiler alert	1	33	Sep 18, 2014 05:15PM
spoiler question: how did Harry's partner kill Stines husband with her sedestal twitch?	1	72	Dec 06, 2013 01:56PM

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About Jo Nesbø

Jo Nesbø

16,968 followers

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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“With regard to power, women don’t have the vanity men have. They don’t need to make power visible, they only want the power to give them the other things they want. Security. Food. Enjoyment. Revenge. Peace. They are rational, power-seeking planners, who think beyond the battle, beyond the victory celebrations. And because they have an inborn capacity to see weakness in their victims, they know instinctively when and how to strike. And when to stop. You can’t learn that...” — 46 likes

“Losing your ife is not the worst think that can happen. The worst thing is to lose your reason for living.” — 29 likes

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Nemesis

(Harry Hole #4)

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