The book, published by Harvill Secker and translated by Don Bartlett, follows detective Harry Hole and his team in a race against time to crack the identity of a violent bank robber who always seems one step ahead. Grainy CCTV footage shows a man walking into a bank and putting a gun to a cashier's head. He tells her to count to twenty-five. When he doesn’t get his money in time, she is executed. Meanwhile, as Harry’s girlfriend is away in Russia, an old flame gets in touch. He goes to dinner at her house and wakes up at home with no memory of the past twelve hours. The same morning the girl is found shot dead in her bed.
Jo Nesbø, a successful musician, economist and author of the best-selling detective Harry Hole series, has won many prizes for his novels, including the Glass Key, the Riverton Prize and the Norwegian Bookclub prize for best ever Norwegian crime novel. His first novel to be published in English was ‘The Devil's Star,’ and the second, ‘The Redbreast’, was short-listed for the CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.
20 March 2008
'Nemesis' by Jo Nesbø
Published by Harvill Secker
£12.99