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Uncatchable bank robber...
An uncatchable bank robber and a mysterious suicide form the heart of this complex thriller from one of the masters of Scandinavian crime fiction. Nesbø’s wild twists will keep you guessing until the final pages.
Description
"Nesbø's storytelling abilities are incomparable. Nemesis is crime novel as art form and great entertainment."
-USA Today
The #1 international bestseller from one of the most celebrated crime writers in Europe--the New York Times bestselling author of The Snowman--Jo Nesbø's extraordinary thriller Nemesis features Norwegian homicide detective Harry Hole, "the next in the long line of great noir crime detectives," (San Diego Union-Tribune) in a case as dark and chilling as an Oslo winter's night. The second Harry Hole novel to be released in America-following the critically acclaimed publication of The Redbird-Nemesis is a superb and surprising nail-biter that places Jo Nesbø in the company of Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and other top masters of crime fiction. Nesbø has already received the Glass Key Award and the Booksellers' Prize, Norway's most prestigious literary awards. Nemesis is proof that there are certainly more honors in this extraordinary writer's future.
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Nemesis
Editor's Note
Uncatchable bank robber...
An uncatchable bank robber and a mysterious suicide form the heart of this complex thriller from one of the masters of Scandinavian crime fiction. Nesbø’s wild twists will keep you guessing until the final pages.
Description
"Nesbø's storytelling abilities are incomparable. Nemesis is crime novel as art form and great entertainment."
-USA Today
The #1 international bestseller from one of the most celebrated crime writers in Europe--the New York Times bestselling author of The Snowman--Jo Nesbø's extraordinary thriller Nemesis features Norwegian homicide detective Harry Hole, "the next in the long line of great noir crime detectives," (San Diego Union-Tribune) in a case as dark and chilling as an Oslo winter's night. The second Harry Hole novel to be released in America-following the critically acclaimed publication of The Redbird-Nemesis is a superb and surprising nail-biter that places Jo Nesbø in the company of Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and other top masters of crime fiction. Nesbø has already received the Glass Key Award and the Booksellers' Prize, Norway's most prestigious literary awards. Nemesis is proof that there are certainly more honors in this extraordinary writer's future.
About the author
Reviews
Peter Evans's biography of Aristotle Onassis, Ari, met with great acclaim when it was published in 1986. Ari provided the world with an unprecedented glimpse of the Greek shipping magnate's orbit of dizzying wealth, twisted intrigues, and questionable mores. Not long after the book appeared, however, Onassis's daughter Christina and his longtime business partner Yannis Georgakis hinted to Evans that he had missed the "real story" -- one that proved Onassis's intrigues had deadly results. "I must begin," Georgakis said, "with the premise that, for Onassis, Bobby Kennedy was unfinished business from way back..." His words launched Evans into the heart of a story that tightly bound Onassis not to Jackie's first husband, but to his ambitious younger brother Bobby. A bitter rivalry emerged between Bobby and Ari long before Onassis and Jackie had even met. Nemesis reveals the tangled thread of events that linked two of the world's most powerful men in their intense hatred for one another and uncovers the surprising role played by the woman they both loved. Their power struggle unfolds against a heady backdrop of international intrigue: Bobby Kennedy's discovery of the Greek shipping magnate's shady dealings, which led him to bar Onassis from trade with the United States; Onassis's attempt to control much of Saudi Arabia's oil; Onassis's untimely love affair with Jackie's married sister Lee Radziwill; and his bold invitation to First Lady Jackie to join him on his yacht -- without the president. Just as the self-made Greek tycoon gloried in the chance to stir the wrath of the Kennedys, they struggled unsuccessfully to break his spell over the woman who held the key to all of their futures. After Jack's death, Bobby became ever closer to Camelot's holy widow, and fought to keep her from marrying his sworn rival. But Onassis rarely failed to get what he wanted, and Jackie became his wife shortly after Bobby was killed. Through extensive interviews with the closest friends, lovers, and relatives of Onassis and the Kennedys, longtime journalist Evans has uncovered the shocking culmination of the Kennedy-Onassis-Kennedy love triangle: Aristotle Onassis was at the heart of the plot to kill Bobby Kennedy. Meticulously tracing Onassis's connections in the world of terrorism, Nemesis presents compelling evidence that he financed the assassination -- including a startling confession that has gone unreported for nearly three decades. Along the way, this groundbreaking work also daringly paints these international icons in all of their true colors. From Evans's deeply nuanced portraits of the charismatic Greek shipping magnate and his acquisitive iconic bride to his probing and revelatory look into the events that shaped an era, Nemesis is a work that will not be soon forgotten.
Strong, but not as good as the Leopard. I am all askew in this series, so need to get a handle on the order of the series.
In which I mostly skirt around my incredibly long and ever-expanding views on societal victim-shaming because who has days to type that up and people just want to know about the wacky British people, for godssakeNemesis starts very intriguingly, with Mr. Rafiel, introduced in A Caribbean Mystery leaving Miss Marple in his will twenty-thousand pounds, given she solve a mystery for him. Old hat for Miss Marple, right? Except she won't be told the who, the what, the where, or the when of the crime, only the code word "Nemesis".I feel a little guilty giving this a lower rating than A Caribbean Mystery, as it does feature a much more involving mystery, full of messed-up psycho-sexual dimensions to which Agatha Christie gives much more body than Caribbean trifle. But it is also in need of a judicious amount of editing: it takes a far bit to get moving, the same clues and recaps of events are repeated incessantly, and Christie's style heavily leans on dialogue where a little narration would be a lot more efficient. This undermines the solid core of the story Christie is weaving, but more problematic is her shockingly regressive views, which arise in several contexts, but most specifically as those that shame how young women of "today"(1971 is the publication date) act too "loosely".This is most egregious in some victim-shaming that occurs, which crops up not once but multiple times by several different characters. I chose one example to discuss, just because it's the most elaborated, but the other examples are much the same. **MILD SPOILERS, if you don't want to know anything about what the case is** The following are words from a crime/police-psychologist, who thinks the man in question does not have the personality of someone capable of the murder of a girlfriend for which he's been convicted. Said convict is a known compulsive liar, thief, gangster, delinquent baby daddy, and who was involved in a previous assault case with another girlfriend: (excuse the length, but I wanted to give you the fullest context necessary)"That [earlier case] told against him, of course. Not in the jury's mind, because of course they did not hear about that until after the judge's summing up, but certainly in the judge's mind [...] I made a few inquiries myself afterwards. He had assaulted a girl. He had conceivably raped her, but he had not attempted to strangle her and in my opinion--I have seen a great many cases which come before the assizes--it seemed to me highly unlikely that there was a very definite case case of rape. Girls, you must remember, are far more ready to be raped nowadays than they used to be. Their mothers insists, very often, that they should call it rape. The girl in question had had several boy friends who had gone further than friendship. I did not think it counted very greatly as evidence against him. The actual murder case--yes, that was undoubtedly murder--but I continued to feel by all the tests [...] none of them accorded with this particular crime." Yes, a man who fits many of the dimensions by which we define sociopathy, and who has a history of violence towards a girlfriend, is totally incapable of committing a murder (of which he was convicted even without the details of the assault-case being heard at trial, a trial where he had the best defense money could buy). He beat her, but he didn't strangle her, so he's clearly he's a nonviolent soul. Women who have had several boyfriends cannot be raped. She's lying. These later two implications are particularly horrible and hurtful, because besides being ugly and ignorant and false, are also much more prevalent even today than they should be in any right-minded society.**end spoilers**I'm not demonizing Agatha Christie. I haven't read enough of her to characterize her work as a whole or to really disseminate her worldview. But I do think it's very telling looking at the publication dates of her most popular works, that most of them were from the 30s and 40s and none of them were from the 60s or the 70s. As a character, Miss Marple represents to me a subversive celebration of qualities that are normally derided in Western culture as being stereotypical-elderly-people traits-- and so it's incredibly disappointing to have her instead be a figurehead of stereotypical qualities are just plain ugly.Note: Nemesis is the basis of one of my favorite Agatha Christie's Marple episodes (2007), staring Geraldine McEwan. It's a little camp and a lot of fun, and it irons out most of the unfortunate implications. I recommend the series in general. It's nice slight viewing that has a great sense of humor about itself.
This is the 9th c hristie book i've read. It came out in 1971, just four years before Christie's death in 1975. Miss Marple is given a vague assignment by a man she had encountered in the West Indies who has died. He seeks to have his wayward son cleared of a murder he doesn't think he committed. Miss Marple goes on the bus tour of gardens and houses in England designated by the dead man, and when the tourt gets to a certain town she is invited to stay at the house of three sisters. There are 2 old murders and one new one and of course Miss maple solves them all. The scenario nis very contrived and everything goes like clockwork, in typical Christie fashion. I read it with interest but it does not compare with the realy great Christie novels such as And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But it was OK.
Nemesis by Agatha Christie features Miss Jane Marple as she embarks upon a quest that a previous acquaintance has asked her to complete. She feels compelled to do this as the request came from beyond the grave. She is supplied tickets to a coach tour of Beautiful Homes and Gardens, and having no real knowledge of what she is supposed to discover, off she goes.Tension mounts slowly in this book as Miss Marple painstakingly puts the pieces together and finally realizes that she is to be the Nemesis for someone who got away with murder a number of years ago. She must study the characters around her, both on the tour and in the countryside where they stay. With her uncanny knack for sensing evil on full alert, it isn’t too long before murder is on the agenda, and Jane Marple must tread very carefully or she could very well be in great danger as well.This was an interesting mystery that had Miss Marple more actively involved then usual. Instead of being overlooked while she observes all quietly from a corner, this time Miss Marple is front and center in the storyline as she takes control of the investigation. A well-done, entertaining mystery, that suffers a little from a slow start but the suspense builds nicely.
This just didn't hold my interest long enough to get into it, and these days I haven't got the reading time to waste on books that don't get me 'in' right from the start. Shame, because I've just discovered Agatha Christie's novels!
Classic Ms. Marple -- what's not to love? And this is actually one of her best -- but read Caribbean Mystery first.
I thought it was an above average mystery, with some deep themes about love and the dark side of love.
I love Agatha Christie! Nemesis is the goddess of retribution, and that is what Miss Marple is in this story. Nemesis is a Miss Marple mystery, and I have to say, it is probably my favorite Miss Marple mystery (my favorite Agatha novels are from Poirot). Miss Marple is thrown into a mystery by a letter of an old friend, and she has pretty much nothing to start with. It's very fun seeing how she begins to collect this information throughout the story, as opposed to other mysteries where she has some facts to start with.
Although this is a very late Christie, written well beyond her golden era, the opening chapter is a sheer delight in the author's classic style, as Miss Marple indulges in a long, discursive meditation on reading the newspapers.Miss M., despite being considerably aged and lame ("On'e feet are not what one would like feet to be," she silently laments as she contemplates her infirmities), she's still very sharp, if a bit more scattered, and able to spot a killer with ease. The careful reader will spot the truth fairly early on, but getting to Miss Marple's conclusions is interesting, if not as much fun as the earlier novels. One thing that makes this less than her best book is the absence of some of the characters from her standard books. A good relaxing read, but not her best book.If you like Christie, do give this a chance.
The last of the Marple novels to be written, and the second last in chronological order. It shows, with Miss Marple feeling her age, and feeling the loss of her ability to tend to her garden herself. But her gardening skills feature strongly in this book, as she uses them to test the claimed background of various suspects. Marple herself doesn't know what the mystery is at first, because she has been asked by an acquaintence from a previous case to investigate something for him -- only the request is set up to be delivered after his death, and with no actual information about the case, simpy instructions that take her to places where she can observe and form her own conclusions untainted by his biases. Marple is indeed the Nemesis that Jason Rafiel was hoping for, bringing a late but much-needed justice to an old case.I thought the writing could have been tighter, but Marple herself was a delight in this book. Enjoyed this a lot.
Kinda dull, but still a good cozy mystery!
Re-read after watching the travesty that was the "Marple" TV adapataion (which seems to have been written by someone who read a brief summary the plot and had not paid attention in either history or RE classes at school). It is a much better book, Miss Marple, at the behest of a recently dead acquaintance is sent on a coach tour with instructions to right a wrong, to see justice done, in fact to once again become Nemesis in a pink fluffy shawl. Excellent.
Mr Rafiel, from 'A Caribbean Mystery' has died and has has left Miss Marple £20,000 if she agrees to undertake an investigation. Although he gives her no clues as to who or what he wants her to look into, Miss Marple agrees to undertake the task and is sent on a coach tour of English country houses and gardens. When one of her companions is killed, Miss Marple discovers just whose death Mr Rafiel wanted her to investigate and why. Ultimately she discovers just how destructive and terrible love can be. This is one of my favourite Miss Marple novels.
A bit too contrived for my taste.
Rafiel leaves Miss Marple a mystery in his will. Two mysteries, in fact, since she must figure out what the mysery is first! Without knowing any details, she must undertake to correct an injustice.This novel meanders through coach tours, English gardens and village life before arriving at the core of the mystery.
Read them all......My favorites are the Miss Marples.......
Perhaps my favorite Agatha Christie to date.
Surprisiny, clever plot. The story is detailed which makes that you “see” everything as in a film.
I love the mystery but it Julia just both confusing and long as the author ties up everything. This is only my second book from Nesbit and it was thankfully shorter but still I I felt too many characters and their individual stories which can become confusing. Perhaps these are seeds for future stories but all tidied at the end?
This is the first novel I have read by this prolific Scandinavian author. It was comforting in a way to encounter Norwegian detective Harry Hole – a man with a troubled love life, alcoholic tendencies, an unconventional detecting style and razor sharp instincts for personal survival, and think....now who does he remind me of? Ah yes – just about every other fictional detective, irrespective of nationality! It’s a case of strap yourself in for a bumpy ride – the story takes off immediately and never lets up, the central case being solved any number of times before a hard and fast solution is settled on. A fast and furious chase takes us to far flung locations and includes the sort of film-friendly moments (“Follow that skip”) that invite an inevitable celluloid version sooner or later. I guessed whodunit in the case of the dead girlfriend (modest cough) – it seemed obvious right from the start, but the plot’s twists and turns had me convinced I was wrong for much of the book. A fun, exciting and varied read that likes to tease the reader. It’s crime fiction that plays by the established rules, but in a good way.
Als bei einem Bankraub eine Mitarbeiterin kaltblütig ermordet wird, ermittelt Hole gemeinsam mit einer neuen Kollegin. Doch damit nicht genug: Eine frühere Freundin von Harry wird erschossen aufgefunden - und er war an ihrem Todesabend bei ihr, kann sich jedoch an nichts erinnern. Schnell wird der Fall als Selbstmord zur Seite gelegt, doch Harry zweifelt an dieser Version - und ist bald der Hauptverdächtige. Dazu noch weitere Banküberfälle, wenn auch ohne Tote - Harry Holes Leben gerät langsam wieder in eine üble Schieflage. Und seine Freundin Rakel muss derweil in Moskau um das Sorgerecht für ihren Sohn kämpfen.
Die Geschichte ist wie gewohnt ;-) überaus spannend und nicht auf den ersten oder auch zweiten Blick zu durchschauen. Man ertappt sich dabei, den gleichen Fehler wie Harry zu machen: '...man irgendwie für eine Sache blind wird, wenn man sie so oft gesehen hat.' Die Personen, selbst die kleineren Rollen, sind überzeugend portraitiert, so dass die handelnden Figuren vor dem inneren Auge bald zum Leben erwachen.
Sehr interessant fand ich zudem die immer wiederkehrenden Exkurse zur Existenz der Zigeuner, die offenbar auch in Norwegen nur ein geduldetes Volk sind.
Und das letzte kurze Kapitel macht klar, dass man auch den fünften Band mit Harry Hole lesen muss. Denn der Mord an seiner früheren Kollegin Ellen harrt noch immer der Aufklärung.
Die Geschichte ist wie gewohnt ;-) überaus spannend und nicht auf den ersten oder auch zweiten Blick zu durchschauen. Man ertappt sich dabei, den gleichen Fehler wie Harry zu machen: '...man irgendwie für eine Sache blind wird, wenn man sie so oft gesehen hat.' Die Personen, selbst die kleineren Rollen, sind überzeugend portraitiert, so dass die handelnden Figuren vor dem inneren Auge bald zum Leben erwachen.
Sehr interessant fand ich zudem die immer wiederkehrenden Exkurse zur Existenz der Zigeuner, die offenbar auch in Norwegen nur ein geduldetes Volk sind.
Und das letzte kurze Kapitel macht klar, dass man auch den fünften Band mit Harry Hole lesen muss. Denn der Mord an seiner früheren Kollegin Ellen harrt noch immer der Aufklärung.
Harry Hole? Not my favorite detective, but I like the books nonetheless. If I could give half stars, I've give him 3.5.
Chaos. Nearly gave it 4 stars, maybe I should have done. I delighted in the way the solution changed and changed and changed. Each time seeming plausible but turning out wrong. Being plausible is not enough so let's hope the truth was the truth by the end. Moved the running sub plot along gently as well so I shall keep reading in the right order.
Not as thrilling/harrowing as his later Hole books, this is still very exciting with almost too many twists. Nice atmosphere of Norway and Brazil.
Nemesis is the fourth novel by Jo Nesbø to feature Inspector Harry Hole, alcoholic loner and excellent detective. In Nemesis, Harry meets up with an old flame and wakes up with a giant gap in his memory and a dead former girlfriend. Add to that a particularly violent bank robbery, an Albanian Gypsy convict with a liking for Sun Tzu, an overly affectionate Rottweiler and Harry's old nemesis, Inspector Tom Waaler, and a new sidekick who has a photographic memory for faces and you get quite a wild ride of a novel. Though not quite as good as The Redbreast, Nemesis is still engrossing and well worth a read!
More twists and turns than the Tour de France, plus a writer who offers humour, insight and moral commentary in just enough dose to feel like I learned or pondered something worthwhile. Crime writing of the first order.
Nesbø’s writes characters. His men act out their faults on every page. His women mostly die. But, you do not read Nesbø for the people. He’s a plot man.
He starts off racehorse-style, running three plots side by side: dead banklady Stine, dead lover Anna, and dead policewoman Laura. Two of the plots gallop along; the third is a dark horse poking up her long-deceased head every fifty pages or so.
Then Nesbø’s gets tricky. The Inspector solves the murders, neat and tidy, but neatness is illusion. Norwegian crime has layers of evil and the Inspector keeps falling through holes, like a hard-boiled, hard-drinking Alice chasing after a gun-toting rabbit.
The twists get tiresome after a while. Nesbø’s pulls the rug out from under you one too many times. But you go on. You must see how it turned out even if it is 2AM.
He starts off racehorse-style, running three plots side by side: dead banklady Stine, dead lover Anna, and dead policewoman Laura. Two of the plots gallop along; the third is a dark horse poking up her long-deceased head every fifty pages or so.
Then Nesbø’s gets tricky. The Inspector solves the murders, neat and tidy, but neatness is illusion. Norwegian crime has layers of evil and the Inspector keeps falling through holes, like a hard-boiled, hard-drinking Alice chasing after a gun-toting rabbit.
The twists get tiresome after a while. Nesbø’s pulls the rug out from under you one too many times. But you go on. You must see how it turned out even if it is 2AM.
Still a great series. I have a lot of fun reading these books, they always have memorable characters and plots. I love the character of Harry Hole, he is far from perfect but has realistic faults and worries. The people surrounding him are also always great, interesting people.
I am definitely glad I read the book and look forward to the others in the series.
I am definitely glad I read the book and look forward to the others in the series.
A gritty thriller with an existential, alcoholic detective and some worthy musings on the similarities between vengeance and what we talk about when we talk about justice. "Nemesis, the goddess of justice and vengeance." "Which the Romans pinched off the Greeks...They kept the scales, changed the whip for a sword, bound her eyes and called her Justitia...Blind justice. Cold-blooded vengeance. Our civilization rests in her hands. Isn't she beautiful?"
Well...isn't she?
Well...isn't she?