Nemesis (by Jo Nesbø)

Jo Nesbø has been described in Daily Express, a British newspaper, as Norway's finest crime writer. That was after he wrote "The Redbreast", the third novel in the Detective Harry Hole series. High praise indeed.

Before I proceed any further, I should say 2 things. Firstly, I have not yet have the chance to read any books written by any other Norwegian crime writer apart from Mr Nesbø - so strictly speaking, I would not yet be able to agree or disagree that Nesbø is Norway's best crime writer. Secondly, I have not yet read "The Redbreast", so I am not yet able to see what is it about that particular book that drew such acclaim from Daily Express. Having said these 2 things, I can definitely understand Daily Express' sentiments. That is because I have just finished the fourth novel in the Detective Harry Hole series, "Nemesis". It was brilliant, & Mr Nesbø deserves much praise for his work.

"Nemesis" started with a bang, with a bank robbery in Bogstadveien, Oslo which culminated in the cashier being brutally murdered. Video footage of the robbery would reveal just how savage the killing was - the robber held the cashier at gunpoint & asked her to count to 25 while demanding the bank manager to give him all the bank's money before the cashier finished counting. She would be blown away shortly after, when the robber did not receive the money in time. Oslo Police assigned Detective Harry Hole to solve the robbery.

But not only has Harry had to contend with investigating the robbery. He would have to contend with the death of Anna Bethsen, his former girlfriend. Hole had dinner at Anna's home one evening, but then later woke up in his own home with no recollection of what happened during the last 12 hours. The same day, Anna was found shot dead in her own bed.

So Harry now has his plate full with the bank robbery & Anna's killing. Harry would later receive cryptic, mysterious emails from an unknown source relating to Anna's killing. It seems that the sender of the emails knows something about Anna's death - the sender might possibly have been the killer or at least had been present at the scene where Anna had died. It would later transpire that the sender of the emails was trying to frame Harry for Anna's death, by setting things up to make it look as if Harry had killed her & that Harry had tried to frame another individual for the killing. It would be a challenge for Harry to avoid being incriminated for Anna's death & simultaneously get to the bottom of the mystery. All the while, the bank robberies escalate in Oslo, thus adding more & more to Harry's plate.

Harry was aided by his new colleague, Beate Lønn, in investigating both cases; the search for answers to the robbery would take both Harry & Beate as far as Brazil. To add to the twists already in the story, Beate is the daughter of a former Oslo policeman who was killed many years ago during a bank robbery. The criminal connected to that particular robbery, one Raxhol Baxhet, appeared to have known something about the Bogstadveien robbery. Another twist - Raxhol is related to the dead Anna Bethsen!

"Nemesis" is absolutely thrilling & chilling, unpredictable & rivetting. It is thick (about 470 pages) but not difficult to follow. I would say that "Nemesis" shows that Jo Nesbø is indeed a master of his craft. This is a must-read for lovers of crime fiction.