The Monkey Trap (Harry Hole 11)
Bewertet mit 5 Sternen
So this is my first Harry Hole – no 11, no problem coming from not (yet) knowing the others.
So this is….
…a thriller. I could not put it down. There were calmer parts – and then the level would suddenly rise again, with lots of unexpected turns.
So this is a who-dunnit. Normally, with a thriller it is about an offender more or less mysterious. Then it is about the hunt – unlike with crime stories where you guess along „who dunnit“. Here at some point, unexpectedly, you find you know about as much as the investigators – and start your own chase…
So this is about a pychotic killer on the loose. The murders are evil, the victims will not be “simply“ killed, there is a portion of sexual assault – but the descriptions keep some of it at a distance, describing what forensic says more often than dwelling too long in the actual situation. So: low ick factor (in terms of no Agatha Christie, more for a Mankell-fan than for Cody McFadyen). You won’t be spared nail biting and shock. „He used one of the dentist’s own drills to force her to take off her nylon stockings and put them over her head. First he raped her in the dentist’s chair, then he set fire to the stockings.“ p 170f No further detail, just your imagination.
So this is about some more complexity than mostly. Not really about the language level – although I enjoyed the dry sarcasm. The characters are great – who else has it that the loser will have his chance to become the heroe? Who will depict the heroes to be morally so questionable (sex, alcohol, family)? Who will risk popular figures? I am buying them all. And, again, the sarcasm, like when dry alcoholic Harry considers „An alcoholic hates and curses drink because it ruins his life. But at the same time it is his life.“ p 284
So this has some portion of love story – without the kitsch. Some portion of father-son-conflict – without giving you the creeps of feeling to endure pseudo-psycho-babbling. Some portion of inherent criticism in society in general and Norway to some degree without feeling lectured. Some portion of profiling, some of forensic analysis, some good old footwork, a little car chase…Did I mention complexity?! I wanted to have it all, do it all: yell at Harry when he looked at the bottle, hug him when his beloved Rakel gets in danger, stop him when he offered himself as…psst…
So this is good. Tinder and 3-D-printers as weapons, investigators living a life style no less risky than that of the victims of crime, thus blurring the frontier between “good“ and “bad“, a psychopath running wild, and a very special plot.
So this is my first Harry Hole – I had the chance to read the English version as the German is only due to come in October 2017 „Durst“ (there are 11 – two were described as early ones; so feel free to recommend whether to start with „The Bat“ / „Der Fledermausmann“ or rather „The Redbreast“ / „Rotkehlchen“).