Knife by John Nesbo - book review

Jo Nesbo has already become my “to read” author, whose books I watch out for, especially his Harry Hole series, with “Knife” being the latest installment. For anyone who wants to follow Nesbo/Harry Hole series, wouldn’t recommend this book. For the simple reason that, it has too much of history and the base assumption being, by now the reader should be familiar with the world and mind of Harry. And the other one being, its definitely not the best of the lot!! The novel starts with a gory beginning and steps right onto the murder in the most disgusting way possible. With victim being heroes wife, Rakel, it gets repeated and elaborated umpteen number of times in detail possible. Sad that Rakel would no longer be part of this series. Harry wakes up blood on his hands, pants and everywhere. Yet he is clear as a whistle that he has nothing to do with the murder, at least until 350 odd pages into the book!!! So much for a sharp detective! He thinks his villain from previous book is the perpetrator and goes after him. The villain too gives enough hints and even does a mini confession of the crime. When everything seems so simple and happens within first half of the book, makes one wonder, what the hell is in store for remaining 300 odd pages there comes the twist. The hero is made to think that he is the murderer with all his alibis going bust. Its neither a spoiler alert nor a spoiler, for the way in which the lead up happens, anyone can guess this twist from the initial setup itself. He decides to commit suicide and while dying or almost dying, gets an epiphany and finds out the real murder. Now that would be a spoiler to reveal who the killer is, but for any new readers it would’ve been evident much early itself. The surprise factor would be more for the followers of the series, because of the character sketch of that individual. But the supposedly grand reveal, actually falls flat. In between the investigation, almost every lady character have an affair with Harry. Considering the timeline of this series, he must’ve been at least 50+ years old. Still gets projected like an youth icon and alpha male!!! Tamizh cinema thothuthu!! And to think that his flings are the core reason behind the plot, ithukaada ivlo akkapor is what one may think after finishing the book. Idhula adutha part vantha it is quite obvious who is going to be calling whom and for what!!

Gils verdict – Blade nu per vachirukalam. Oru murder mysterya ipidi 600 pagekaada izhupeenga!!!