There is nothing new about bringing treasured characters back from the dead. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle responded to unprecedented public dismay by resurrecting Sherlock Holmes after his apparent demise at The Reichenbach Falls. After Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole appeared to meet a similarly violent end in Phantom, legions of Hole/Nesbo fans were left distraught. But fret ye not! It was only a flesh wound! As you may have gathered, Hole didn’t die, but has ended up in the far from stressful environment of Oslo’s police academy. But, his gentle recovery comes to an abrupt end, after the current field officers fail to solve a series of brutal murders of members of their own force. This is a gripping and terrifying master class in crime fiction, reviewed here.
