Book review: Chasing Norwegian vampires in ‘The Thirst’ – Florida Times-Union

THE THIRST

Author: Jo Nesbo

Data: Knopf, 480 pages, $26.95

Jo Nesbo returns with Norways top detective, Harry Hole, in The Thirst. Harry has left the police department and finally found the happiness and peace that so eluded him for most of his life. No longer searching for twisted serial killers and busy teaching at the police college in Oslo, Harry does not miss his old life at all. He is married to his love, Rakel, and is proudly watching his stepson, Oleg, studying to follow in his footsteps as a policeman.

Creeping out of the shadows comes a killer intent on making the citizens of Oslo believe a vampire is on the loose and feeding on the innocent. Harry wants nothing to do with this case but his old foe, Mikael Belman, comes to him for help wielding a carrot and stick. If Harry does not come back to the force to head up the hunt for the vampire, Belman will have Oleg dismissed from college and there will be no police career for him. Reluctantly, Harry agrees.

As usual, Harry is allowed to form his specialty group of investigators reporting only to him, and he reports only to the high command. He chooses two detectives he has worked with previously and a psychotherapist who has been studying the concept of vampirism. Hallstein Smith has long sought the approval of his peers with his theories and this case just might vindicate him

Frustrated with the pace of the investigation, Harry bends the rules, resulting in the death of an innocent. This sends him off into an alcoholic freefall risking everything he has so sorely wanted all his life. No other detective in modern fiction has borne so much horror and depravity in the hunt for the most perverse of serial killers. He has seen it all and does his best to put it behind him, but his innate quest to even the scales for the dead will not let him.

Nesbo has a penchant for devising some of the most bizarre and deadly weapons for his serial killers and this novel is no exception. Sit back and enjoy another long anticipated descent into the macabre with Norways favorite crime fighter.

Richard Klinzman lives in Middleburg.

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Book review: Chasing Norwegian vampires in 'The Thirst' - Florida Times-Union

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