New Installment in Harry Hole Crime Series

A serial killer is targeting Oslo police officers; is Harry Hole still alive?

Police

The Oslo Crime Squad hunts for the serial killer responsible for the torture and murder of police officers staged at the scenes of earlier unsolved crimes.  Author Jo Nesbo's (The Redeemer; The Phantom) newest mystery presents an entire school of red herrings as readers try to discern who is the villain, who is the next victim, and what happened to Harry Hole. In Police, a stalker/student with a peripheral connection to an earlier case diverts attention from the investigation while obstruction by the politically connected chief of police and his vicious henchman hinders the detectives in their desperate chase to stop the murderer(s) before another colleague is harmed.

Followers of the Harry Hole (pronounced Hoo·la) series will want to read this book for both the resolution to the end of a previous novel, The Phantom, and the development of an old antagonist. Though Nesbo's police procedurals have become increasingly violent and heavy on coincidences, crime fiction readers will enjoy the high level of suspense that is sustained throughout as more questions are raised than answered before the startling conclusion is reached. (Library Journal Reviews)

Top Mystery of the Month: Phantom

After a three year absence, ex-detective Harry Hole is back in his home town of Oslo in Phantom, the third book in a riveting Scandinavian series from Jo Nesbo.  Harry returns to Norway because Oleg, who was like a son to him, has been accused of murder.  Though he is no longer a cop, investigation still runs in Harry's blood.  His quest for the truth soon leads him into Olso's underground drug scene and deep into his own past in this mystery packed full of psychological suspense.

Thrilling Series Starter: The Boy in the Suitcase

In this first installment of a newly-translated series of Danish thrillers, Red Cross nurse Nina Borg retrieves a suitcase from the Copenhagen train station, discovering to her shock that its contents is a drugged three-year-old boy.  Too scared to go to the police, Nina risks her life to protect the child in this high-adrenaline novel, which is on Goodreads' featured November "Movers and Shakers" list.   Fans of other Scandinavian crime writers such as Stieg Larsson (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), and Lars Kepler (The Hypnotist) will especially enjoy this latest series to cross the Atlantic.  Reserve Lene Kaaberbøl's The Boy in the Suitcase from your Community Library by clicking the link and entering your barcode information.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Stieg Larsson's worldwide bestselling Millennium trilogy has touched off a firestorm of interest in Scandinavian crime fiction. As of this writing, Larsson's now 4-year-old book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo still has enough interested readers in the Mastics/Shirley area to keep eight out of the Community Library's ten copies in circulation. Thanks in large part to Larsson, American readers now have a wide selection of translated works by other Nordic crime writers to choose from, such as Henning Mankell (also from Larsson's homeland of Sweden), Jo Nesbo (Norway), Karin Fossum (Norway), and Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark). If you enjoy Stieg Larsson, you might want to give these other Scandinavian noir writers a try.