Maybe my fourth Harry Hole novel, set in Oslo, Norway. And I forgot how much I like the main character, Harry Hole, sympathetic, on the wagon for the time being, fighting the darkness that his life of fighting crime brings. The story is strange, centering on the Salvation Army in Norway, which appears to be a respected and major force in Norwegian life and politics. And though it seems to have the trappings of the army, it's an army for Christ. Two brothers, both brought up in this tradition, are at the center of the novel. Robert, the older, is assassinated at a function, seemingly for no reason. Nesbo, however, allows us to get to know the killer, a Croatian named Stankik, known as the 'little redeemer,' a survivor of the Serbia atrocities, a contract killer, working for a group, headed by his mother.
Harry decides to go to Croatia, to talk with the killer's mother, to find out who took out the contract on the brother. They make a pack; she will tell him who was the Norwegian who hired the her son, and Harry will do what he can to let her son return to Croatia. Because Stankik realizes that he assassinated the wrong brother, he stays in Oslo and ends up killing a couple more people before Harry corners him, with the help of one of the brother's girl friend, and we discover it's the brother, the seemingly straight, kind one who hired Stankik to kill his brother. The plot may seem complicated but we like Harry enough to stick with it, and we learn quite a bit about the Salvation Army in Norway, its work, as well as the troubles this kind of religious fervor creates in a family.
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