Comically absurd, witty, and charming. I love that Charlotte gets the romance and adventure in this one…

Deeply Philosophical. Twisty and mysterious, humorous and heady, crossing the twentieth century times over in the most bizarre cat and mouse chase to save the world. Certainly unique, but also racing in a captivating prose. I read it straight through —and it would have been in one go but that I had to go work in between.

 

Delightful silly and frivolous, hilariously historically inaccurate fiction, and charming all the same. 

Just when I thought Harry was done for good…

Here comes adventure #13–and it starts with Harry being all but physically dead. He drags himself from his state of apathetic detachment to assist an inept (corrupt) department of justice to finding said justice by use of his own criminal methods. It’s a mess. Really. Just like Harry. 

But still such addictive entertainment. 

I was glad Katrine was back, and Nesbø returns some other characters to us, adding to their stories and weaving them into this one. And while I think I guessed the culprit by 3/4 of the way through, I could never be quite certain… not until the very end…

…which has been left open for Harry to return to us, if he will, in another future addition to this unbeatable Nordic Noir series. He’s left some messes he needs to clean up, and there are several extremely dirty and corrupt characters hanging about Oslo’s system of law enforcement and halls of justice he could expose.

Get in there, Harry… 

Loved this. Such a good-feels story for the matchmaker soul. And I believe we even get a hint at the author’s own love story here… a sunny spring day or late European summer kind of read to enjoy on holiday. 

Might have been a good story behind all the Nordic porn mag cheap + crass language --but I guess that's what sadly sells a novel these days (I don't mind the effing and ceeing tbh, it's the vulgarity played off as 'romantic' that makes me gag). It was still an exciting story (beyond the long passages of lust--which we are told about in the synopsis, so I can't say I wasn't warned, at least), if a bit predictable, and it is definitely a page turner (some pages flew by a lot faster than others; aka: skipping over the extreme gag/cringe bits). I suppose I enjoy the use of more suggestive literary techniques, not this kind of explicit rubbish with multiple excessive drinking binges, young adults behaving irresponsibly in every arena of life... *sigh* not again... that said: there are excellent bits of saucy banter, super battle scenes, enticing plot trajectory, fun Nordic historical and folkloric context... so, despite yet another dirty mag anatomy lesson for the NA category, the story shows some beautiful promise.

This was beyond weird, a bit of a shockingly weird….  gross, vile, shocking, bloody, gory horror, with a bit of the sick-humour kind of mundane ‘housewife’ life thrown in for contrast. It’s good writing that keeps your attention, and I was throat-gripped and thoroughly disturbed.