In the depths of winter, a killer stalks the city streets. His victims are two young women, both found with twenty-four inexplicable puncture wounds, both drowned in their own blood. The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of options. There is only one man who can help them, and he doesn't want to be found.
Deeply traumatised by The Snowman investigation, which threatened the lives of those he holds most dear, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong's opium dens. But with his father seriously ill in hospital, Harry reluctantly agrees to return to Oslo. He has no intention of working on the case, but his instinct takes over when a third victim is found brutally murdered in a city park.
The victims appear completely unconnected to one another, but it's not long before Harry makes a discovery: the women all spent the night in an isolated mountain hostel. And someone is picking off the guests one by one.
Loosing Oleg and Rakel had been hard for Harry and so to escape from it all he had fled to Hong Kong. Now living a not so idyllic life, Harry is approached by an official, who pays off Harry’s debts, to return to Oslo to his sick father and another murder case that’s rocking the nation. At first Harry has no intention of investigating the case, but when another murder takes place in his presence, his instincts take over. Needless to say, it Harry who finds the link between the seemingly random and unconnected victims. Once the connection is established, Harry’s investigation takes unpredictable twists and turns asking us readers whether Harry will be able to stop the murderer in time.
Disbelief! Yes, I was in complete state of disbelief when I realized what the murder weapon was. Frankly, I hadn’t heard of this ‘instrument’ before and had to google it. Once I knew more about it I my status wasn’t any better because it seemed so unbelievable and gruesome! And yes, I am a person who has the experience of lapping up all the gory details of Alex Cross & other James Patterson novels. I finished reading this book quite some time back, and I intentionally took time to review this book hoping that the explicit details would have time to settle down and give the other aspects of the book to come forward. But so far no luck… You really need to read this book to understand what I am talking about. Needless to say, the action of this book is beyond thrilling. Hardcore, unbelievable, exciting – all the words can be used to describe the action in this book. Harry seems to be pushing his own limits further and further in every book.
Detective Kaja is another strong character that the author has introduced to us in this novel. I like her strength and grit. As far as the plot goes, there can hardly be two opinions about it. It was once again a great plot – I would say the best for far in the series, but I have read only 3 out of the 9 novels. So, I’ll stick to saying that this was the best out of the three I have read. But in this book I would like to specially mention the translator, Don Bartlett, for the amazing work he has done.
I have to read this now to find out what the weapon was...thanks for the review :)
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