The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo **possible spoilers ahead**

Nesbo's third Harry Hole book, first of them to be translated into English, starts off with an American President's visit to Norway and Hole's blunder that needs to be covered up by those higher up.

This faux pas cover up involves Hole being transferred to another section in the police force and being given a 'promotion' by name alone - to begin with - where he ends up monitoring the activities of neo-Nazi groups. It is here where he starts to piece together not-so-random pieces of a case that takes the reader back to WWII and one of the groups of pro-Nazi, Norwegian soldiers that were fighting on the eastern front.

This case does the traditional 'Nordic Noir' thing that I'm quite sure every policeman in Scandinavia dreads the idea of and reveals twist after twist until it's no longer a skin-head surveillance case but one that is complicated, decade spanning and needs the detective to rely more on gut instinct than anything. On top of that it branches out into a different case that's only slightly related to it - those poor policemen!

To begin with this book does skip between present day and the 1940s, which I usually find hard to keep up with, but after about halfway through the book this does stop. The history and the light it paints the young soldiers at the time in (not all were necessarily fascist sympathisers, some were hungry, non-political country boys) is rather interesting and thought provoking and not something I recall reading before. Even so, I was still rather happy when the flashbacks ended.

The turning point for the book and the reader is about halfway in when you realise that there's something rather more malevolent than normal hiding between the lines, this was the moment I found myself eager to pick the book up and try to figure it out for myself - unfortunately (or fortunately) Nesbo is far better than I am and there's a reason he's a celebrated crime-writer and I'm not - I just didn't figure it all out until the last few pages, as intended.

The character of Harry Hole himself seems to stick to the cliche of an embittered, loner detective that fights his flaws throughout the book - but I actually rather enjoyed him. As damaged as he is, and becomes, you still feel like giving the occasional cheer for him and his dark humour does add to the whole atmosphere.

This is a rather enjoyable read and I'm glad that I bought the next few in the series, but the intensity means I may take breaks between each book. Now if only the first two Harry Hole books had been translated - there are still some unanswered questions!

Upcoming Books

To let you guys know what's coming up in the way of book reviews on here I thought I'd make a list of the books I have and, apart from the top 6, the order they'll be read and reviewed in.

1. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
2. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
3. Jamrach's Menagerie - Carol Birch
4. Snowdrops - A.D Miller
5. Half-blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
6. Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman
7. The American Dream Reversed - Bianca Philipp (https://www.createspace.com/3624762)
8. The Redbreast - Jo Nesbo
9. Nemesis - Jo Nesbo
10. The Devil's Star - Jo Nesbo
11. The Redeemer - Jo Nesbo
12. The Snowman - Jo Nesbo

All 12 are either on my bookcase or in the process of being delivered so I reckon this should keep me out of mischief for the next few months, don't you ;D After that I'll see what I have hanging around and take suggestions too.

As a special note - Bianca Philipp is a good friend of mine who's just had her first book published, once I receive my copy (not signed *sob*) I'll get onto reading and reviewing it... as I beta'ed it to this should be an interesting read - please feel free to buy it using the link provided. (I am not being paid for that plug, but my normal fee is choc chip cookies!)

Apologies and Decision time

Just realised something - though I did say I'd make an effort reviewing the books I read from now on - the book I'm currently reading, Rebellion by James McGee, is the 4th in the series and the first 3 have already been donated to charity during some flat move or another (they were all hardback editions so rather heavy). Seeing as I read the first one when it came out in 2006 this may strain my mind to try and recall every detail for a review so I will just have to try to generalise those 3 and feel guilty about it later, I am sorry folks.

On another point though - I need some advice on which book to start next - Ariana Franklin's The Death Maze (historical crime) or Jo Nesbo's Redbreast (Norwegian crime). There's such a thing as too much choice.

Sorry for the shortness of this post, just thought you'd want a heads up if the next review seems a bit 'hmmm'.

EDIT: Have decided that isntead of reading one of the two books mentioned above I am going to try and see if I can read the 6 books shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize before the winner is picked (or just read them in my own time). I shall also try to review them inbetween.

Adult supervison required.

So I have somehow allowed myself to increase the number of books I need to read.
It was a lovely, sunny Saturday morning and I had just found out that I had money in my account and a Waterstones not 20 minutes walk away from me that was, conveniently, holding a 3 for 2 offer on all fiction books - now, if you know me well, you know where this is going.

I went in with the sole purpose of looking for some Jo Nesbo books when, lo and behold, there were pink stickers on EVERYTHING and all Jo Nesbo books on a table right as you entered the door! Now, Jess had informed me that I HAD TO READ 'The Snowman', but there are 4 books that he wrote before that and, whether I need to read them in order or not, I felt I had to. So, that was 5 books I needed and just 1 more to round it up to 6 and get 6 for the price of 4 (I Know, it doesn't sound so good now, but at the time!). Unfortunately Waterstones must have been plotting against me because I happened to see the next two Ariana Franklin books and just couldn't say no to myself.

Let's sum up so far - that's 5 Jo Nesbo, 2 Ariana Franklin and I need to now add 2 more books to get to 9. Practically speaking I could've said 'But no, why not put the 3rd Franklin book  down and come back for it at a later date.' I could've said that... I didn't :S

So, back to the bookshelves for 2 more books to round up to 9. There, on a cardboard display shelf, hidden at the bottom with that lovely, promising, happy pink sticker on it's cover was... 'Rebellion' by James McGee! Oh joyous day, I've been wanting that book since I saw it in hardback form (this was paperback, but it's the contents that really matter). Now, I have a choice - keep the Nesbo books and McGee and put down Ms. Franklin's books or... get one more and struggle under the weight of all 9 when walking back home up a large hill on a hot day.

The books I finally walked home with - gasping for a cuppa the entire way - were:
Jo Nesbo - The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, The Redeemer, The Snowman.
James McGee - Rebellion.
Ariana Franklin - The Death Maze, Relics of the Dead.
Mark Billingham - Scaredy Cat (had watched the Sleeping Beauty show on TV, but wanted to read the book and round up ;P)

Now I just need to find the time to read them all. I think I've figured out why friends and family drag me AWAY from bookshops - I always give in to the happy stickers!

If you don't hear from me for a while - I'm holed up indoors with copious amounts of tea trying to get through the books!