Title: Police
Author: Jo Nesbo
Genre: Crime Fiction
Source: Library
Rating: Liked it a Little (3 out of 5)

In Police, a killer is targeting police, killing them at the scene of unsolved murders they were involved in investigating. The police don’t have a clue so a small task force is set up to try and look at things from different angles. It was an idea developed by Harry Hole, former Oslo police detective.

As a detective, Harry was a brilliant mess. A drunk, a drug addict, unreliable and unpredictable but with an ability to figure out just who the bad guys were. Now, he is a lecturer at the police academy and clean and sober, with no desire to “get back in the game”. Despite that, the task force – which is made up of members of his former team – keep asking. And he keeps saying no…until the death of one of them leaves him with no choice. Especially, when it starts to look like the cop killer is a cop.

It probably won’t be a surprise to say Harry figures it out in the end, after putting himself and those close to him in danger (it wouldn’t be a Harry Hole story without it). Some of his leaps are a bit suspect and the fact that no one else on his team makes them before him can sometimes feel like a stretch but the stories move at such a pace and with such twists and turns that I, at least, was forgiving.

One of the reasons is because I’ve read all the Harry Hole novels and come to like him as a character, although I must admit to also having gotten a little bored with him.  By making him a lecturer and sober, I think Jo Nesbo might be too and maybe trying to mix thing up a bit. I’ve also dislike just how bloody the books have got.  This, though, wasn’t as gory as the last few which I preferred.

I would recommend Nesbo to anyone who enjoys crime fiction. For those new to Nesbo, though, this is not the place to start. There is too much back story. Too many relationships and animosities already in place to make sense of those. You definitely need to go back to the beginning.

Emma x