I'm giving it 3 stars, but its more like 2.5.
My relationship with crime/mystery novels isn't the best. It is actually my least favorite genre. The reason for that is because I always feel the story goes like this: murder (or another crime) - police detective (with some troubles from the past or some serious issues) - solve murder (or another crime) - repeat in next book - and again - and again.
It makes the story bland and boring to me, unless there is some kind of special twist to it. Like for example iZombie, a tv shows, where they solve crimes but she is a zombie so it is sort of awesome. :')

I've heard nothing but praise about the Harry Hole-series, and they are such a popular series all over the world! Which makes me really proud since the author is Norwegian and so am I. Having a Norwegian work acknowledged like this, makes me really proud and happy because all 'big' literature usually comes from English speaking countries (or that is how it feels like).

I didn't hate this book, it was just not exciting or original. The main character Harry is from Oslo, but this story is set in Australia. I loved that part of the book! Being in Australia was the most exciting part of the story and I loved hearing the stories and legends from the Aborigines (I hope they are accurate though). That was the biggest plus in this book for me. It was also so much culture stuff and gay stuff I didn't know anything about, but I think the book is set in the 1990s so I'm not sure how accurate it is compared to present day. Not that it has to be like present day, but I cannot be know if it is like that now, and I should not assume so either (just because I read it in a book).

Harry wasn't a character I haven't seen before in crime, and the murder/mystery itself was meh. I've heard that this is not the best book in the series, and it is the author's debut novel, so I should give him some slack. I know the later books in the series are praised much higher than this one, so if this was sort of okay, then I really have something to look forward to I guess?! I know some have read this after reading the later ones and were disappointed, so I'm glad I'm reading them the other way around!

The next book is set in Thailand, I think. LOOKING FORWARD TO IT SO MUCH!!!
Haha, it was also a character in this book named Sandra and she had some fun with Harry :) I laughed.