Harry Hole: The Bat

Have I told you the news? Well, it’s not news anymore, it’s been a while since I read that book, but I haven’t blog about it! 

I finally read the first Harry Hole book!

Some of you know how much I love Harry Hole series, but I started reading it from the seventh book. Then I moved to the forth, the third and then the first! Well, for that first book, I’m here to talk about. It’s called The Bat and it’s the beginning of Harry Hole’s adventures.

Care to join me in a discussion? Just press the button.  (I never include spoilers. So dig in.)

So, Harry is forced to go to Australia to unravel the story about the death of a Norwegian girl, who was working at a bar. Soon enough Harry becomes central to the Australian police investigation when they start to notice a number of unsolved rape and murder cases around the country. And that is the moment when the mess begins. People seem to know more than they’re willing to reveal and Harry tries desperately to untangle the messy knot.

But the deeper he goes into the case, the deeper he loses himself and the drink is not too far away from his hands. Will he drink again? And if he does, can he handle it? Harry is in a race against time to stop highly intelligent killer, who is bent on total destruction. What’s it gonna be?

I loved this first story. I get to know Harry better and fill the blanks about his personality. It was a fast-paced story, amazingly written as every Nesbo’s book I’ve read, and it has surprises. Oh, there is nothing better than a good surprise in a book. The scenery is a bit extreme as Harry finds himself in weird hotel rooms and hanging out with clowns, but without this scenery the book wouldn’t be the same.

Having read more books in this series, I realized how Harry has grown up as character. I didn’t see too much of the confidence he emits in the later stories and I felt his confusion and disorientation as he find himself in an unknown country, with unknown men around him. Can he really trust someone?

Read this book, read Harry’s adventures. It worth your time. Here are my previous posts about Harry. Snowman, Redbreast, Nemesis.

So I’m going to end this post with a passage from the book. Enjoy. 

“Of course it’s sick. But sickness is normal, Harry. It’s the absence of sickness that’s dangerous, for then the organism stops fighting and it soon falls apart. But delusions, Harry, don’t underestimate them. They’re worth having in every culture. Take your own, for example. In Christianity there is open discussion about how difficult it is to have faith, how doubts can nag at even the cleverest, the most devout priest. But isn’t the very acknowledgement of doubt the same as admitting that the faith you choose to live by is a delusion? You shouldn’t renounce your delusions so easily, Harry. At the other end of the rainbow there may be a reward.”