Redbreast by Jo Nesbo - book review

Finally I managed to finish reading the book after almost a month since I started. Was never a big fan of Nesbo, with his novels lying unread for past 4 years. I found them to be way too slow and the characters way too complex for me to understand and follow. But after Devil’s star, wanted to give the series a try and started with “Red breast”. To describe the novel, one can reference the Ford escort car used by Harry Hole, the hero, in the novel. It’s made to sound like a scrap-on-wheels which has to be pushed really hard before it starts to run. The first half of the book, especially those detailing the war zone, were like pushing that car, uphill, with a safety pin. I almost gave up and started googling to figure out the end. To my surprise, apparently, this book had won several prestigious awards and was supposed to be one of the author’s best efforts!! I decided to plough through a little bit more to see where it leads and to quote the car example again, whether its scrap or not, once you cross the halfway mark and from the time the story starts to revolve only in the present, it’s as if the car goes on a free fall with no brake to stop!!!

The story has everything. Love, revenge, multiple personality disorder, serial killing, War, very interesting history of Norway’s role on WWII, twist after twist that gets carry forwarded into subsequent storylines in the series, highly and extremely complex characterization and some neat lift and shift from “Day of the jackal” towards the end. The detailing is what was killing on the previous book by Nesbo and he goes overboard again. There is a scene where Harry calls another person from his room after reaching his house. It takes three full pages for Harry to get into his house, have a look at his room, description of things that lay there and by the time he picks the phone, if you are still awake, you would feel drowsy to say the least. It was storyboarding on words for every single situation, location and even for characters that makes it an overkill. Especially the war portions that were supposed to set the tone for the second part, could’ve been edited mercilessly. Till almost 50% into the book, you’ve no clue where the story is heading. It starts off with a bang though, literally. There is an misunderstanding by Harry, leading him to kill a secret service agent, mistaking him for an assassin after the US president life. And interestingly he gets promoted for this deed rather than censure. There is a painstakingly detailed reason for this promotion that has been forcedly introduced to link a love angle way down the line. Certain sections felt, they were added as an afterthought, once the first draft was readied.

Gils verdict – For those who are planning to read the Harry hole series, better check the order in which the series has been written, for there are quite some spoilers, if you happen to read in the random order that I tried. Since I started reading the series in haphazard manner, I already knew of a spoiler. Guess, the Harry hole series have two storylines – one involving the past of Harry and his idiosyncrasies and the second specific to the novel’s reason which could be about some serial killer or assassin who are either killed or caught by Harry. So no wonder the novel is tedious as both the sections are given equal weightage. When I was reading Devil’s star, it felt very much a part of a long running series, with Nesbo, assuming the readers to be familiar with Harry and other characters in his life, doesn’t do much of introduction. It gives a sense of thrill as well, to read a random book in a series and trying to match the cause with effect. Redbreast refers to the small bird otherwise known as Robin. By the time you finish the book, it might have laid few eggs and the next generation of Robins would’ve been up in the sky!! Overall, if you survive the detailing onslaught and the dragging war sections, the second half of the book make a quick read and for history enthusiasts, it throws a whole new light on Norway’s role in WWII.