{"id":1239,"date":"2013-10-10T07:46:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T14:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2013-10-10T07:46:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T14:46:45","slug":"murder-in-wintry-oslo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1239","title":{"rendered":"Murder in wintry Oslo"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, to my knowledge, the frequent flyer Bob Moyer has not visited Oslo in recent months \u2013 except through the excellent fiction of Jo Nesbo. But that was quite a trip.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

THE REDEEMER. By Jo Nesbo. Alfred A. Knopf. 397 pages. $25.95. Also available as a Random House Audio book, read by John Lee. 14 hours, 11 compact discs. $40.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Harry Hole isn\u2019t.\u00a0THE REDEEMER, that is.\u00a0 A number of characters in this tale, rife with moral ramifications, do have some claim to the title \u2013 a young assassin who survived the Serbian conflict, the father with a drug-addled son \u2013 but most everyone, including his new boss, believes Oslo detective Hole is beyond redemption.\u00a0He certainly does.\u00a0He\u2019s an alcoholic; he\u2019s socially inept; he\u2019s abrupt with subordinates and disrespectful to his superiors; and he can\u2019t live with his wife and son because of the life he lives.\u00a0He does have one redeeming quality, however.\u00a0He can solve crimes like nobody\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

The crime in this case (fifth in the series, but the latest in translation) concerns the death of a Salvation Army volunteer, standing in for his brother at a Christmas concert.\u00a0Harry is consumed with the questions that emerge.\u00a0Was the dead man the intended victim, or was it the brother?\u00a0 Who is the assassin?\u00a0Who hired the assassin?\u00a0Is the assassin still in town? Can anyone save the drunks, the addicts and the homeless from the dark winter of Oslo and their lives?<\/p>\n

Can he go any longer without a drink?\u00a0Harry has gone looking for salvation through the bottom of a bottle before, and the view doesn\u2019t look any better this time.<\/p>\n

The current dean of Scandinavian mystery writers, Nesbo is not just a master of character development.\u00a0He can push a narrative right along as well.\u00a0A door knocked upon at the end of a chapter may open on another room in another country, another city.<\/p>\n

The award-winning author devises a page-turning, cliff-hanging plot\u00a0of coincidences worthy of a Thomas Hardy novel, spinning from street to street, country to country, through the politics of the Salvation Army and the Oslo Police down to a climax that redeems everyone \u2013 except Harry.\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0It\u2019s Scandinavia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, to my knowledge, the frequent flyer Bob Moyer has not visited Oslo in recent months \u2013 except through the excellent fiction of Jo Nesbo. But that was quite a trip. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE REDEEMER. By Jo Nesbo. Alfred A. Knopf. 397 pages. $25.95. Also available as a Random House Audio book, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[502,27,503],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","tag-jo-nesbo","tag-mystery","tag-scandinavia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}