Leopard (Ein Harry-Hole-Krimi 8)

So tief unten war Harry Hole noch nie. Gestrandet in Hongkong, die Nächte in einer Massenunterkunft für Gastarbeiter verbringend, den Geistern der Vergangenheit diesmal mit Opium statt Alkohol entfliehend und auf der Flucht vor den Triaden denen er Geld schuldet. Doch seiner neuen Kollegin Kaja Solness gelingt es, ihn zurück nach Norwegen zu bringen: doch nicht, weil das Morddezernat seine Hilfe braucht, sondern weil sein Vater im Sterben liegt. Und weil er dann schon mal da ist... Die zwei ungeklärten Mordfälle, wegen deren man ihn um Hilfe gebeten hat, erregen seine Neugier und als während seines Aufenthaltes eine dritte Person stirbt, ist sein Interesse geweckt. Als ob diese Todesfälle nicht anspruchsvoll genug wären, findet er sich zudem inmitten des Polizeiapparates in einer weiteren Kampfzone bzw. einem Intrigenspiel wieder: Morddezernat und Kriminalamt ringen jeweils um die alleinige Kompetenz für die Aufklärung von Mordermittlungen - und er spielt dabei eine entscheidende Rolle.
Wie auch in seinen bisherigen Büchern (zumindest in den zweien, die ich bisher (leider erst) gelesen habe), ist nichts so wie es scheint, was insbesondere auf die handelnden Personen zutrifft. Immer wieder führt Nesbø vor, wie schnell man sich von Äußerlichkeiten blenden lässt, selbst Harry ist nicht immer dagegen gefeiht. Man fällt von einer Überraschung in die nächste und sogar als man sicher zu sein scheint, die Lösung zu kennen, gelingt es dem Autor noch weitere 150 Seiten Leserinnen und Leser an das Buch zu fesseln. Es sind häufig sehr extreme Wendungen, aber dennoch ist der Verlauf im Nachhinein durchweg in sich schlüssig.
Nesbø schreibt detailliert und anschaulich, wie beispielsweise die Aufenthalte Holes im Kongo oder das Lawinenunglück. Für nicht so blutrünstige Lesende vielleicht etwas zu anschaulich, denn die Darstellungen der unterschiedlichen Todesarten sind teilweise schon heftige Kost. Kein Buch für schwache Gemüter.
Alles in allem beste Thrillerunterhaltung für mehrere Stunden - am besten am Wochenende! Denn man wird sich schwer damit tun, das Buch vor dem Ende aus der Hand zu legen.
Eine Anmerkung noch zum Schluss: Wie der deutsche Verlag auf diesen Titel kam, ist mir (fast) ein Rätsel. Es gibt lediglich einen Absatz im Buch zu diesem Tier (S. 206) und er passt weder auf Harry noch den Täter. Der norwegische Titel Panzerherz wäre deutlich stimmiger gewesen.

What a page-turner! I held my breath at least every 20 pages.

And another half star! I watched the film of The Snowman and enjoyed it a lot so I followed with this next Harry Hole adventure. It was pretty complicated, but also pretty rewarding because of that. Maybe for the next one I should write myself a character network as I go. I'm still not quite sure what happened to some of the characters like Beavis and Tresko - but I like that - good to leave some things unresolved or unknown.

This is quite a long story. Many ups and downs: guilty, not guilty, guilty, and then ai, yi, yi. Insanely gruesome serial murderer from whom some of us are saved once again by our drunken Norwegian detective. But, Harry is still not doing so well, and does not seem to have a bright future. He is getting awfully beat up and scarred. It would be impossible to make a series of these into films and be at all accurate - Harry must look quite the monster now. Whew.

Another dark, but typically riveting, volume in the Harry Hole series.  

Love the fallible anti-hero that is Harry Hole!

A serial killer cop story - not bad, as these things go.

good read, tough to put down

Inspector Harry Hole is at it again, resigning that is. After the last traumatic episode his wife and stepson have left him and Hole finds his way to the opium dens of Hong Kong to wallow in self-pity and disappear from the real world.
He is dragged from the viper’s pit when two young women are found, brutally murdered with another unique method that Nesbo seems to relish in bringing to the unsuspecting public, along with a third suspected of the same murderer. Hole is Norway’s expert at catching serial killers. The news that Hole’s father is on his death-bed has more reason for him to return. He is done with police work, just ask him.
In a wild chase that leads us through the ski slopes and lakes of Norway to the outer regions of the Congo on Africa’s western plains Hole traces the suspect, now of several other bizarre murders as he tries to find the common link that brings all these hapless soles into the path of the killer.
When State run authorities impede his progress Hole strikes out alone, as usual, with all the skills of a modern-day Colombo, to unmask the culprit in his own style. Talking of style, for those of you that have had the pleasure of reading Nesbo’s other US published novels I started to complain to myself when I discovered a pattern in his work only to have that shattered in a matter of pages, almost like Nesbo set a trap. Don’t try and get into his or Hole’s head; he will shred you.
The Leopard is a work of pure genius, a skillfully woven mystery with enough action and gore to thrill the regular suspense lover in you. Nesbo has done it again; brilliant.

Audiobook. Harry Hole, a Norwegian detective. This is mid in his story. Fine story. I am a sucker for thriller. But I have downloaded several other Harry Hole stories. Better than average. And the setting (not American, not British) makes this worth the listen. Lots of snow too. That seemed appropriate.

I don't believe that I finally finished this book. It is good but sometimes I got lost with long descriptions of a secondary character and it is too long.

For lover's of the Harry Hole crime series, this 8th story finds our intrepid (and flawed) hero drawn back to Norway in search of a serial killer with a unique killing toy/tool. His inter- and intra-departmental woes continues as he rubs just about everyone the wrong way.

The first book of Nesbo's that i've read. Very capturing and not dissimilar to other books based in Scandinavia that i have read

This book did not disappoint. As usual Nesbo, writes such an intricate tale weaving a story that you cannot guess the ending. In this book you really feel Harry Holes pain of living in a hell created by understanding a killers psyche, leaving him too traumatised to take part in the world as normal. There were so many levels to this book, leaving the ending a total mystery until the last bit.

Creepy, but good.

I have managed to read these books all in the wrong order. This was very readable and I enjoyed it, although some of the violence and descriptions of the murder victims is quite strong. I don't really know what I'm going to do about reading the rest of them as I wanted to read The Snowman but this book told me who did it!

Following the traumatic closure in his last case, Harry Hole resigns from the Crime Squad and leaves Norway. He's found in Hong Kong rather the worse for the wear. Facing new demons, he returns to Norway, is pulled into an undercover investigation into a case of gruesome multiple murders, finds himself a pawn in political feuding between the Crime Squad and Kripos, has to deal with a betrayal and struggles to cope with a personal crisis.

Traversing between the Congo and Norway, Harry's investigations uncovers a a torture tool that may have been purchased in the Congo and smuggled into Norway, used in some of the murders. When he suspects a group of vacationers in a ski cabin of being the targets for the serial killer, he races to uncover the identify of the other guests at the cabin before the killer strikes again. He even pays a visit to an old foe in an attempt to understand the motive behind the killings.

Trying to stay one step ahead of the killer and his new nemesis at work, Harry falls prey to the lure of alcohol once more. When he becomes a target for the killer himself, he realizes he is has nobody but himself to rely on and that time is running out.

Unfortunately I started this series in the middle but that didn't prevent me from being introduced to the tortured Harry Hole and the serial murderer he is called back to Norway to find. The story opens in Hong Kong where Harry is in trouble with gambling debts and a serious alcohol problem. A detective from his old detective department finds him and tells him his father is seriously ill. That is the only thing that could entice him to return to Oslo after dealing with a particularly nasty murderer who did something to his wife and son, the Snowman.

On his return he deals with the inevitable departmental power struggle and begins to learn what the police have not been able to about the murderer. What did the growing number of victims have in common and what was the instrument of torture that was used?

Harry is the quintessential flawed hero who has suffered major, major trauma but is the best at what he does which is hunting down and stopping terrible, horrible people. People who know him, who may not like him, still respect him and use his unique talents.

Harry Hole's 8th investigation is just as exciting and entertaining as the previous ones. The only thing is that the structure of the books tend to be a bit similar to each other: Mysterious, serial killer-like murders happen in Norway -> they has to dig out Harry Hole from somewhere -> he brilliantly solves the case (with some errors in between) and breaks a lot of rules -> at the travels somewhere for urther self-destroying.

It took me almost two months to read this book because of what my time is like. I usually only read a book in bed before going to sleep; a few chapters. This is quite a long book. I'm expressing this because Jo Nesbo gave me almost two months of enthralling reading. It's a good sign when I pick up a book 24 hours after I had last read it and still know exactly what's going on. I don't know if it's proper to call a serial-killer story fun, but for me this one was.

Tricksy ... very tricksy indeed! The ending, while interesting, seemed to linger on overlong, hence only 4 stars.

Really good crime novel. Surrounding a set of murders that baffles the Oslo police such that they have to get Harry Hole back from Hong Kong where he has been on drugs. He comes back into a power struggle between the Oslo Crime Squad and the National Police. More people are killed until they track down the people responsible. I really liked the plotting in that you kept thinking that it had been figured out - but it hadn't. There were more layers below than first met the eye.

Another fabulous book about Inspector Harry Hole. It's a long book, but it moves quickly. Nesbo's plotting is magnificent; his characters are interesting and realistically complex; his writing is enthralling. (I did read the first few pages a couple of times before I was able to get past them. The opening scene is well done, just very horrible.)

Harry Hole is such a cool guy!

Man will lesen, lesen, lesen... gutes Buch, aber nicht so stark wie der Vorgänger. Harry verliert im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes fast seinen Kopf, aber am Ende kommt er mit einer schönen Gesichtsnarbe davon.

Another great Jo Nesbo thriller - fast paced, full of interesting characters (next time I'll keep a list because there are many), constant twists and turns making it difficult to figure out what is next, and of course maverick Inspector Harry Hole at the helm. Seemingly random murders turn into a string of deliberate killings for those present at a mountain cabin in Havass on a certain date. The murders are grisly and Nesbo even invents a torture mechanism called Leopold's apple (a round object placed in the mouth which shoots out spikes when triggered) to kill off some of his characters. Harry Hole is heavy drinking and self destructive, hated but admired by even his enemies. He becomes obsessed with every crime scene he becomes involved with making personal relationships very difficult. His drinking and drugging don't help either. Despite all of his shortcomings, Hole is smart as a whip and likeable. I look forward to reading the next Harry Hole thriller.

This is one of those books where you have to put your life aside because you can't stop reading. Full of plot turns and twists and Scandinavian atmosphere, including lots of coffee drinking!

This is a page turner--little doubt about that. But felt a bit like a Chinese food page turner--did not stick with me very long. This is the second in the series that I have read. Good, entertaining beach read with plenty of twists and turns but will not change your life.

My new favorite mystery writter. Not sure I love Hole like some of the other repeat people but the stories are fantastic. Maybe it is the cold weather that makes the writers so good.

I like the Harry Hole series and this doesn't disappoint. The violence is brutal but it makes a great page turner all the way through quite a long book.