Library Journal
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In the 12th installment of this best-selling series (after The Thirst), Harry Hole's life has sunk to a new low. Assigned to work cold cases for the Oslo police, he's unable to investigate longtime adversary Svein Finne, recently released from prison. Additionally, since separating from his wife, Rakel, he's started drinking heavily again, so he's not too shocked when he wakes up covered in blood with no recollection of the evening before. When he's called about a murder that literally hits close to home, his world is utterly shattered. Harry is forbidden from officially investigating the case, but naturally he finds a way to follow leads and question suspects with the help of his friends. As evidence increasingly points to him, his despair and hopelessness send him into a downward spiral from which he might not emerge. VERDICT Dark, gritty, and clever, this is quintessential NesbØ, a powerhouse of a storyteller. Familiarity with the characters is beneficial, but not required, to appreciate this well-plotted mystery. Series fans will either love or hate this, but either way it's a must-read. [See Prepub Alert, 1/14/19.]—Anitra Gates, Erie Cty. P.L., PA

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Who is the darkest of them all?" If there was a crime-fiction magic mirror somewhere, and one were to put this query to it, hoping to determine whose novels were the darkest in mood, in theme, and in the protagonist's soul, the answer, almost certainly, would be Jo Nesbø. No one knows darkness like Nesbø's Harry Hole, the Oslo supercop who continually confronts demons both in the external world and every bit as terrifying in his own mind and heart. So it is here, in Nesbø's latest Hole adventure. The inner demons take the first bite, sending Harry tumbling off the wagon yet again and prompting his wife, the long-suffering Rakel, to throw him out. But that's only the beginning. There's a new serial killer in town, but Harry, confined to cold cases, isn't free to track him or to make the case that this killer isn't new at all. Harry's bête noire, Svein Finne, is out of jail (where Harry put him 10 years ago), and, in Harry's mind at least, is on the rampage once more. Yes, but bouts with booze and serial killers are old hat for Harry. So Nesbø delivers a haymaker to Harry's solar plexus that leaves him reeling as he's never reeled before. Want to know more? No, you really don't, at least not now. Focus instead on Harry doing what he does when the darkness descends: finding killers with the kind of intuitive and analytical mind you wouldn't think would still work after all that Jim Beam. But work it does in what may be Nesbø's best storytelling yet. It's not just clever; it's diabolical, and let's be glad it is, because the corkscrewing plot provides a measure of relief from the pain on view in this uncompromisingly intense and brilliant novel.--Bill Ott Copyright 2019 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Inspector Harry Hole's 12th case is his most grueling to date. And considering his history on and off the Oslo Police (The Thirst, 2017, etc.), that's quite a claim.Back on the bottle since his wife, human rights executive Rakel Fauke, threw him out, Harry wakes up one morning with no idea how he's spent the last two days. Even before he can sober up, he's hit by a tornado: Rakel has been murdered, and Harry's colleagues want him to stay out of the case, first because he's the victim's husband, then because they can't rule him out as her killer. The preliminary evidence points to Svein Finne, whose long career of raping women and later stabbing them to death unless he's gotten them pregnant, hasn't been slowed down just because he's spent 20 years in prison and is now pushing 80. The elusive Finne, the very first killer Harry ever arrested, is driven by the need to avenge his own son's death: "For each son I lose, I shall bring f-five more into the world." Captured after Harry unforgivably uses his latest rape victim as bait, Finne blandly confesses to Rakel's murder, but the unshakable alibi he produces sends the inquiry back to square one. A series of painstaking investigations identifies first one plausible suspect, then another, each one of whom might have been designed specifically to immerse Harry more deeply in his grief. And even after each of these suspects, beginning with Finne, is cleared of complicity in Rakel's death, they continue to hover malignantly over the landscape, ready to swoop down and wreak still further havoc. Long before the final curtain, most readers will have joined Harry, shut out of the official investigation and marginalized in ever more harrowing ways, in abandoning all hope that he can either close the case or enjoy a moment of peace again.The darkest hour yet for a detective who pleads, "The only thing I can do is investigate murders. And drink"and a remarkable example of how to grow a franchise over the hero's most vociferous objections. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.