Bad things have happened to homicide detective Harry Hole over the years, and he's got the prominent facial scar and prosthetic finger to prove it. But in Knife, the 12th book in Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series, the very worst happens: Rakel Fauke, the longtime love of Harry's life and, finally, his wife, is stabbed to death in the home she's recently thrown him out of. (Their relationship has always been rocky, mostly because Harry is--as one colleague puts it--"an alcoholic loose cannon.") Harry is convinced that Svein Finne, a recently released convict he put behind bars 20 years earlier, killed Rakel in an act of vengeance.
After 25 years on the force, Harry is suspended from the Oslo Police District until further notice: the journalists covering Rakel's murder will harass him, argues his boss, and the department can't afford the distraction. Of course, the husband is always the first to be suspected, and it doesn't help that Harry was on a bender the night Rakel was killed.
Any reader who thinks that suspension from his job will prevent Harry from steamrolling ahead to catch the bad guy obviously hasn't read any of the other books in the Harry Hole series, among the standouts The Snowman, The Redeemer and Cockroaches. Infusing Knife with the series' customary blend of forensic science, psychological excavation, ingenious plotting and wince-inducing brutality, Nesbø continues to show why he is considered the prime mover behind modern-day Scandi noir. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer