Police and Phantom Jo Nesbo book review

I actually had started off with Phantom, after completing Leopard. But the book was so dragging and boring that, would’ve skipped closed to half of it. Didn’t feel like posting a separate review for the book. In fact thought of stop reading the series any further, but luckily stumbled on to Police, the next in the list. After reading about 8 books in this 11 book series, I can safely say that, Police is the best of the lot. Best in the sense that, it is more contemporary in its pace and setting and is more of pulp fiction variety. It has violence, murder, decent good police investigation, emotion, sentiment and some really good twists with a cliff hanger of an ending. Had Jo Nesbo’s Harry hole books been an action drama series, ending for Police and Phantom would’ve been blockbuster series finale. For all its dull and drab and dragging storyline, Phantom does ends in a bang and sets it up perfectly for a humdinger of a follow up in Police.

Phantom – for a person who translates over 500 pages per book from Norwegian to English, the translator hardly comes up with decent titles for the book. It is anyone’s guess as to why the book is named Phantom. Unlike other stories where Harry has to be dragged into the plot, here it starts off with him volunteering for a murder case involving Oleg, his girlfriend’s kid. Before you know it, he is neck deep into the investigation on his own and somehow manages to connect non-existing links on age old murder investigation. In between, the story goes back and forth in the form of narration by the guy killed by Oleg. There are some wise words by a rat that makes an occasional appearance. The storyline deals majorly with drugs and how its transported and sold on the streets of Norway. Narcotic based storylines are anathema of mine. Maybe that is another reason why I skipped most parts. But the plot also involves certain carryover characters from previous series who are corrupt police officials. Harry not just manages to kill the drug overlord, he also saves Oleg’s girlfriend from their clutches and finally gets shot at as well. Perfect masala script for tamil movies of the 90’s.

Police – while Phantom would’ve left repeat readers of Harry series, wondering if the guy survived, the suspense is maintained for quite a while in Police. There is an interesting twist at the beginning itself, which throws us off the track and with immediate entry of Harry post that incident, its nothing short of our mass hero entry in Kollywood movies. He finds obvious link unseen to seasoned policemen hell bent on trying to solve a string of murders of ex-policemen, on the very scene of crime, which they failed to solve, with the exact same setup for kill. The story moves at breakneck speed and Nesbo keeps you guessing till the end as to whodunit. When you finally follow the crumbs and settle on two possible characters, he further twists the plot and proves us wrong. When it is finally revealed, though it’s a surprise, there is hardly any logic. Same goes for the reason with which Harry identifies the killer. For such a good thriller, wish the reveal could’ve been bit more nuanced. There is one “Aalavanthan” kamal movie, like scene, where a convict escapes from prison and another femme fatale who has her eye on Harry but couldn’t get her needs. The story ends in a cliffhanger with the, otherwise forgotten, villain stalking and reaching his delicate prey, the near psychotic lady missing in reference and Harry entering into marital bliss. Had it been a drama series, this ending would’ve rivalled many a season finale top ranks. Almost missed the brutal death of probably my most favourite character of the lot. Now I realize how Potter maniacs must have felt while reading about Dumbledore's demise.

Currently into the last book of the series, Thirst. Have been told not to have high hopes of it. Would probably be winding up with the first two part of the series – Bat and Cockroaches.