January 2, 2013
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The Bat
The novel I am reviewing is The Bat by Jo Nesbo which is an excellent thriller. This book was the first in the Harry Hole series and although it has only been released recently in Britain it is quite an old novel. It's set in Sydney, Australia before the Olympics there. Jo is Norwegian and most of this series is set in and around Oslo and thriller writing in general in Scandinavia is very popular with english audiences especially with the success of The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo & The Killing. The plot is a minor celebrity with Norwegian audiences used to host a childrens show a couple of years ago. She has since moved to Sydney where she has been raped and murdered. The killer used a condom and strangled her with his hands & there is little in the way of DNA evidence. Harry is quite upset by the murder and gets his boss to give him the assignment of helping the Australian police with the case. They basically just want him to keep out of the way. The story takes you into the seedier side of Sydney's varied population. It has a population roughly the same as the whole of Norway & has a bigger gay population than any city apart from San Francisco. It does have a happy ending.
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