The Devil’s Star (by Jo Nesbø)

Jo Nesbø, it seems, is a well-rounded person. He is one of Norway’s best-selling authors. He is also a former pop musician & he used to be a footballer with Norwegian club Molde FK. Just how good a footballer or musician he is/was, I would not know as I haven’t seen him play or sing. What I do know, however, is that Nesbø can write crime fiction very well. I say that after having recently finished reading one of his novels, “The Devil’s Star”. This novel (not Nesbø’s first) was translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett.

Here are some reviews that the novel has received from some British newspapers:

“Terrific….a first rate thriller” Sunday Telegraph
“Steeped in entertaining observational detail” Independent
“A well-crafted rollercoaster of a book….Nesbø sets a cracking pace.…A series of spectacular plot twists leads to a thrilling finale. Highly recommended” Guardian

Having read the novel, I feel that all the above acclaims are justified. Judging from “The Devil’s Star”, Nesbø is indeed a fine crime fiction author.

So what’s the novel about? Well, it started with a young lady found murdered in her Oslo flat. A finger was cut off from her left hand, & behind her eyelid, the killer left a tiny red diamond shaped like a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole was assigned to the case, with a colleague that he doesn’t get along with, Tom Waaler. Harry suspected Tom of being involved in shady dealings outside his police profession; specifically he suspected Tom of being involved in an arms smuggling operation & of being involved in the killing of Hole’s work partner. Also, Harry was experiencing some personal problems (alcoholism, separation from partner). So for those reasons, he wasn’t keen on taking on the case. But he was already on notice for dismissal from the Oslo Police Force. That, & with various colleagues being away on summer holidays, Harry had to bring himself to work on the case with Tom.

Just 5 days after the murder in the flat, another lady was reported missing by her husband. The missing lady’s severed finger was later found, & it had the red diamond. Then, another murder took place in another part of Oslo. And then another murder in another place. All the patterns & clues suggest that a serial killer is at large. The key to the killings is the number 5 – the 5 points of the star-shaped diamond, 5 days between each crime, 5 fingers to a hand.

So Harry set about finding the killer, & at the same time look to expose Tom’s illegal & corrupt dealings. The story took a major twist after the supposed murderer was arrested. That arrest took place with roughly 1/3 of the novel (just under 180 pages) left to read, & that was when I had a feeling there was going to be more twists & turns as the real killer was sought.

I thought that the novel (which was more than 520 pages) was well-written. The story was relatively easy to follow, yet at the same time anything but predictable. Never at any point did my interest drop. Having a street outline of the Oslo City Centre at the front of the novel made it easier to follow the story. I would definitely recommend "The Devil's Star" as a book worth reading.

One other thing (& this doesn’t take anything away from the novel’s quality): though the story was set in a Norwegian summer, I didn’t find it easy imagining a sunny Oslo or the characters not wearing coats. I mean, when you think of Norway or the other Nordic countries, you would normally think of cold weather & people in thick clothes.

I have read some good writings of American crime writers (who typically set their stories in North America) & British ones (who normally set their stories in the UK, occasionally France). So it was a welcome change to expose myself to the work of a Nordic crime fiction author and a different setting of a Nordic country. A story set in Oslo gives the novel a different feel from stories set in the UK or the major American cities.

I would certainly look forward to reading more Nordic crime fiction in the future, whether by Mr Nesbø or by other Nordic writers.