Inspector Harry Gap’s 12th case is his most grueling so far.
And contemplating his historical past on and off the Oslo Police (The Thirst,
2017, and many others.), that’s fairly a declare.
Again on the bottle since his spouse, human rights govt Rakel
Fauke, threw him out, Harry wakes up one morning with no concept how he’s spent
the final two days. Even earlier than he can sober up, he’s hit by a twister: Rakel
has been murdered, and Harry’s colleagues need him to remain out of the case,
first as a result of he’s the sufferer’s husband, then as a result of they will’t rule him out
as her killer. The preliminary proof factors to Svein Finne, whose lengthy
profession of raping ladies and later stabbing them to demise except he’s gotten them
pregnant, hasn’t been slowed down simply because he’s spent 20 years in jail
and is now pushing 80. The elusive Finne, the very first killer Harry ever
arrested, is pushed by the necessity to avenge his personal son’s demise: “For every son I
lose, I shall deliver f-five extra into the world.” Captured after Harry
unforgivably makes use of his newest rape sufferer as bait, Finne blandly confesses
to Rakel’s homicide, however the unshakable alibi he produces sends the inquiry again
to sq. one. A sequence of painstaking investigations identifies first one
believable suspect, then one other, every certainly one of whom might need been designed
particularly to immerse Harry extra deeply in his grief. And even after every of
these suspects, starting with Finne, is cleared of complicity in Rakel’s
demise, they proceed to hover malignantly over the panorama, able to swoop
down and wreak nonetheless additional havoc. Lengthy earlier than the ultimate curtain, most readers
can have joined Harry, shut out of the official investigation and marginalized
in ever extra harrowing methods, in abandoning all hope that he can both shut
the case or get pleasure from a second of peace once more.
The darkest hour but for a detective who pleads, “The one factor
I can do is examine murders. And drink”—and a outstanding instance of the right way to
develop a franchise over the hero’s most vociferous objections.
