My true love is come back to me, or how I found another book I'm desperate to read this fall

        For a year now, ever since I read Phantom by Jo Nesbo, I have been mourning my true love in the detective world.  I haven't reviewed Phantom because I didn't know how to.  I thought it was the end of Harry Hole. It was a mystery that broke my heart, with who the killer is.  I know the review is waiting to be done, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, because then the series really would be over.

So imagine my complete shock to see this on Amazon just now, tonight, 12:30 a.m.:
                                 

Yes indeed.  A NEW Harry Hole mystery.  Possibly.  He might be the one in the coma.  I don't care.  He's ALIVE.

I won't give away who shoots Harry Hole, in case there are still people who haven't read Phantom.  I'll write a review later (because now I can do one because he's ALIVE, possibly) when it's not 12:30 a.m.   For now, I am so happy, I'm so excited, Harry lives (possibly) for another day. Just the chance that he is alive is exciting. *Happy dance*  I'm so happy!!!!!!!!!!  Harry has come back to me!!

 So add this to my list of books I'm waiting for the this fall.  It's out Sept 17.

I feel spoiled:  two books that I really can't wait to get my hands on.

HARRY is alive!!!!!!

Here are some of my other reviews of his books:
Snowman
The Redbreast (above link at the beginning of this post)
Nemesis

Pern, I love you!

I love Pern.  I want to go to Pern.  I want some fire dragons of my own, of course.  And I really hope that if I went to Pern, I would have more talent for something than I currently do, or I wouldn't even make it to Harper Hall.

I am talking about Anne McCaffrey's Dragon books, specifically Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, which I read last week for the Grandmaster challenge.  My first science fiction author for this challenge, new to me, and I am totally swept away and want to go to Pern. Now.

Dragonsong and Dragonsinger are written for children, older children/young teens.  They are written with a breathless quality that makes them extremely difficult to put down. I devoured them, reading over the dinner table,  reading late into the night, wishing the ride on the bus would go longer each day so I could read just a little more!

Menolly is the main heroine of the two books.  She is the youngest child of Yanus, the head of the tiny village in a far corner of Pern.  They are fishermen, and their lives are caught up in the sea, all except for Menolly, who shows a rare gift and aptitude for music that her family are ashamed of.  There are no female harpers on Pern.  I will admit, that at this point I had a terribly violent reaction to this storyline.  I thought to myself, well, all right, it's written in the mid-70's.  Women's rights were still coming.  But to be honest, if I had found that she couldn't harp just because she was a woman, I was going to put the book down and never come back to it. I am so tired of sexism in books!  In fantasy, in mysteries, in fiction, in real cultures in this world, that women can't do something just because they are women, is tired.  I'm fed up with it.  So, I read Dragonsong with half a sinking heart, afraid to open up entirely to the story, until I got to the part where it is resolved and very satisfactorily, too, I add.  Delightful.

Menolly herself is a resourceful heroine, independent, and when her family refuse to allow her to do any music at all, she runs away.  In running away, she leaves herself open when the Thread falls, which is a kind of silver thread coming from one of the planets in the sky of Pern, the Red Planet.  The thread burns and kills or destroys whatever it comes into contact with.  The only thing that can fight it are dragons.  So people become dragonriders and fight the thread - however Dragonsong isn't about these glorious creatures, but about fire dragons, tiny versions of dragons that are rare until Menolly, in her attempt to run away, discovers a nest as some Thread is about to fall.  She saves the nest, and imprints some of the resultant dragon hatchlings, so that they and she are linked together.  And this is the best, the most delightful, wondrous, magical part of the books for me.  The writing is good, the characters are very well done, the pace is excellent, but above all, are the fire dragons.   I want one of my own!!!

Dragonsinger continues Menolly's story, as she finds herself finally at Harper Hall, where her musical skill and gifts quickly become apparent.  This book takes place over 7 days, and very eventful days they are.  We see Menolly be tested to see what her musical knowledge and aptitudes are, we see people react to her in good and bad ways - anyone who has 9 fire dragons is bound to attract envy! -  and we see Menolly begin to grow up and accept she can have a place here, a rightful place based on her skills and love of music.  It is a  charming novel, and filled with delightful characters.  I can't rate these two books highly enough.  As soon as my daughter is old enough to read them (in about a year or two I think) I will be giving them to her.  They are fabulous, fun, magical, everything science fiction can be when it is done imaginatively.  I am currently reading the third in the Harper Hall Trilogy as it's called, Dragondrums.  In this one the novel follows one of Menolly's new friends, Piemur, who is sent off to the southern continent as a messenger.  He wants a fire dragon too, I might add.

I am really happy I read these books.  I hope the rest of the Grandmasters I will be reading for the challenge hold as many happy surprises for me!

By the way, I love the cover of Dragonsinger, so I went looking to see if  I could find the artist, and I did!  She's here.

Super News - Harry Hole is back!!!!
Many of you know about my ongoing love affair with Harry Hole, chief detective of the Jo Nesbo mystery series.  I am ecstatic to report that there is a new Harry Hole novel coming out, Phantom, which will be released here in Canada on March 12. A new Harry Hole novel!!!  I can read The Leopard now!!!  I was saving it until I couldn't stand to go without Harry any more.  Now I don't have to, I can go ahead and read it. 

The Sunday Salon - The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

I was in  a reading funk last week.  I picked up four or five books, read a few pages, put them down again. I knew my knee was distracting me, and sorrow, so I waited while I went to work and came back, some reading time lost because I am not taking the bus while my kneee heals.  Finally, I got so impatient on Thursday, I looked around me and thought, what do I want to read?  My eyes lit on The Snowman, the latest Jo Nesbo thriller featuring my love, Harry Hole.  Harry!  I thought. Harry can save me!  And indeed, he did.

For two days I read it, yesterday lost in bliss for most of the afternoon.  The Snowman is chilling, eerie, creepy.  Harry is back to his old self, that is, the self we met in The Redbreast before he went on his drinking binges over the next few books.  He is without his protector and former boss Byarne Moller, who has joined the ranks of the Dead Policeman's Society gracing Harry's wall:  Ellen Gjelten, and Jack Halvorsen, Harry's previous colleagues, and Byarne Moller, all dead over the previous  books in the series. Harry is now alone in his police force, and he knows it.  Even though he has two new colleagues assigned to work with him, he is not liked, although he is respected for his detective work, he is feared because he is that worst of policemen also, an alcoholic who regularly goes on drinking benders.

And yet, be still my heart.  For he is Harry Hole, who has love and loyalty too, to give, and who when he is not drinking, is the keenest detective alive. He makes brilliant leaps of deduction, but can't see what is in front of him until it's almost too late.  He is also clever enough to realize that the plight of the motherless children reminds him of how he felt when his own mother died, which we get to see in this novel.  He may be a lone wolf, but it's not because he doesn't care, it's because he can't find his right home outside of the police work he does.  At the end of the novel, when he is offered what he thinks is a choice, and he accepts.  It means that for the first time, he has realized he has to find more in his life, more to his life.  That seeking justice and the thrill of the hunt are not enough to sustain him any more.  I for one am terribly anxious now to read his next book!  Will he be in North Africa?  What will Harry do next?  If he stays on the force, what next for him?

So, the plot: is it good?  Yes, very. The Snowman is about a series of missing mothers.  All of them are linked by a snow Man built near the house.  The first snow fall of the year.  And yet, the children in the house didn't build the snow man.  When one woman's head is found on a snowman, and another has the missing woman's scarf tied around it, the police realize the cases are linked, and that a serial killer, one of Norway's first, is among them.

Harry is put in charge of the investigating team as he is the only one with experience with the only other serial killer in Norway.  He has also been on a serial killer FBI course in the USA because of this experience.  So he is the logical one to put in charge.   As always, the clues are in the details, and following Harry as he finds each clue and puts them together makes for riveting reading.  This is a very good police procedural.  It's also a very good mystery, even though I had narrowed the possible killers down to two, by 2/3 of the way through the book, this in no way took from the mystery - instead, I kept urging Harry to find the one thing that would confirm what I suspected!    And when he does, it is still almost too late.

This gets 5/5 from me.  Highly recommended, just make sure you have some hours free when you sit down with it, because you really won't want to do anything else but follow Harry as he uncovers the secret behind The Snowman.

Other bloggers and reviews:
Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise

Falling in love with a detective

Have you ever fallen in love with a literary creation? Had a character who suddenly came to life in your mind, and you find yourself thinking about them long after you've finished the book?

I don't mean that I hold conversations with the character! I mean, more like, this character has come alive for me. He has come out of the story, and I see him in my mind's eye, and I want to know more about him. Has that ever happened to you?

He's Harry Hole, the detective featured in Jo Nesbo's Norwegian detective series beginning with The Redbreast, and continuing through Nemesis, The Devil's Star, and The Redeemer. The latest one, The Snowman, has just been released here in Canada.

First of all I must give a lovely thank you to Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise. It was her review she gave of The Redeemer that brought Jo Nesbo to my attention. She gives reviews for all four books, which is when I realized I was really interested in this series. Yes, it took me six months to find The Redbreast! And oh, I am so glad I did. Because Harry Hole is a detective that over the course of the first book, I found myself falling ever so slowly in love with. In the back of my mind I saw him as I saw John Rebus of the Ian Rankin mysteries, middle-aged, about to retire, trying to ignore authority and drinking when not on the job. I deeply admire John Rebus and secretly hope many of our police forces have detectives like him. Harry, though, Harry is in his mid-thirties. Blonde. And a drunk. He's also got very good instincts and like the best detective characters in fiction, is willing to go against his bosses to follow what only he thinks is a trail.

I know it's shallow of me, but when I saw that description of him as tall and blonde, I swear my heart went thump! and then a most terrible crime is committed in the middle of the book, that left me crying out, actually crying so hard that I had to put the book down. I can't tell you more as it's a key plot point for the series, but it broke my heart. And when I picked the book up again and saw that it broke Harry's heart too, that is when I fell completely in love with him. Yes, I love Harry Hole. And so, even though I am in the midst of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, I have bought The Devil's Star already and am panicking because I can't find Nemesis and I must return to Harry and his story quickly!

I know, I didn't think that as I approached middle age, I could still fall for a pair of blue eyes and a slightly morose character, but apparently I will never be immune to this habit. I hope it never fades! Long live my love affair with books!

Hmm, I can see the more serious mystery readers among you wondering when I'll get to the mystery: Yes, my dear Gentle Readers, The Redbreast rated 4/5 for me. I found the plot a little confusing, and sorting who the killer is and names of the characters had me flipping back to check different sections. It's not the writing, nor the translation. It's because the mystery itself is based on something that happened during WW2, that we also witness, that is having repercussions now, and Harry has to sort through other people's memories and stories to find the truth. It's a very good mystery, that is resolved very satisfyingly. It has a most chilling killer, a most awful betrayal, and the prettiest love interest in a while.......I really enjoyed the premise of this story, and the various characters, especially Harry's budding romance (and no, I don't hate her! I'm happy he's happy!). I love the set-up at his police station, the various officers he has to contend with, and I really enjoyed the history of WW 2 from a Norwegian perspective, which I have only a very rudimentary knowledge of. Most of all, this mystery is about people, and what they will do to survive in the most extreme of situations. What makes people go on?

At Detectives Beyond Borders book blog, Peter Rozovsky has a two part interview with Jo Nesbo about Harry and the books so far; Part one and Part two. It was here that I learned that it's Harry""Heuleh" not 'Hole' pronounciation, and that Harry is a mock term for country bumpkin. And lots of other things, including that Norway thinks of itself somewhat in the same terms with its neighbor Sweden as we do here in Canada with the US. By the way, the translation by Don Bartlett is so good that I forgot I was reading a translated book. It read like it had been written in English. It is excellent.

Just so you know how much I like *have a book crush* on Harry Hole, I much prefer him and this book to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I reviewed here last year. Hmm, I see even though I gave it 5/5 it didn't make it on my books of the year list!! How can I prefer a book I give 4/5 to one that's 5/5? Easy. The further I am away from The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, the more I am aware that it's a story written at a very fast pace, that allows us to miss certain plot holes that now that I'm farther away, I have more difficulties with. I can also barely remember Mikael the hero, whereas Harry - well, we all know about Harry now! I think the difference is that if I don't read the sequel to Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, I wouldn't be dreadfully upset - I want to read it, but it's not important that I do. Whereas it's really important for me to keep reading the Harry Hole series. I must know what happens next, and to him.

So my dear Gentle Readers, have you ever fallen in love with a character? who makes you read every book featuring them?