cover image Police: A Harry Hole Novel

Police: A Harry Hole Novel

Jo Nesbø, trans. from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett. Knopf, $25.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-307-96049-8

The life of Insp. Harry Hole, who was shot in the head by his surrogate son in the finale of 2012’s Phantom, hangs in the balance for much of Nesbø’s powerful 10th novel featuring the Oslo homicide cop. Secondary players who have helped out along the way step into the spotlight: forensics expert and facial-recognition whiz Beate Lønn; the brilliant but psychologically unstable detective Katrine Bratt; Harry’s longtime friend Bjørn Holm; and the slippery new police chief, Mikael Bellman. The police force itself is at stake when it becomes apparent that the seemingly unrelated deaths of police officers are actually part of a larger pattern: each officer was slain at the site of an unsolved crime. In Nesbø’s able hands, Harry’s absence is a character unto itself, but this will only make readers more eager to learn Harry’s fate. Author tour. 150,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden). (Oct.)