Book Review: “The Bat” by Jo Nesbø
The First (and Definitely Not the Last)
After reviewing the 13th novel in Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole detective series, Killing Moon, not too long ago, I thought it might be a fun project to go back to the beginning and start reviewing the series of novels in order, one by one. I don’t know how long this project will take me given that I get free books all the time from publishers and then also review books for a trade publication on top of having a day job (and I’m trying to now have something of a social life). However, I thought it would be fun to try — even if the process winds up taking many years to do. And, hey, I like the idea of having to read a series of books that are self-contained but have character development running as a thread throughout all of them. Since discovering Jo Nesbø, I feel like I’ve stumbled onto my own version of Harry Potter — just with more books for reading, and books for reading that are meant for adults. And the guy also winds up publishing at least two books a year, including standalone novels. I don’t know how he does it.
The Bat was originally published in Norway in 1997 where it became a smash hit and won the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. It didn’t make its way to English audiences until 2012, though, by which time later entries in the Harry Hole series had been already published in English. So, this series has effectively been published in English out of order, but the online recommendations I’ve read suggest that readers start with The Bat or risk having plot elements of this book and other early works spoiled in later novels. Again, the murder investigation to be had here is self-contained, but you can tell that the events of this novel may crop up again in Harry’s future.
The other thing that’s noteworthy about this first novel is that it is not set on Harry’s home turf of Oslo, Norway. Rather, the whole thing is set in Australia and there’s a method to that madness, I think. When I was a journalist, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ottawa crime novelist Mary Jane Maffini who told me that the secret to being a successful non-American mystery writer was to set your stories in an exotic place, if not somewhere in America — preferably New York City or another bustling US metropolis. I would imagine that Ottawa and Oslo are not considered to be “exotic” places. Thus, this may explain the Australian setting of The Bat. However, I’ve also read that Nesbø was touring the country with his rock band when he wrote the book, so he may have also been just charmed by the locale.
The story is straightforward. Our hero, Inspector Hole, here aged 32, has been sent to Sydney, Australia, by his Norwegian police department to investigate the murder of a young twentysomething woman who was visiting the country and was a minor celebrity back home in Norway. That’s all there is to it because the novel unravels the investigation into this death — which, given that this is a Harry Hole novel, could be the work of a serial killer and rapist (who is seemingly into blonde-haired women). The first bit of the novel is a philosophical travelogue as Hole visits establishments and small towns with connections to the deceased and, to be frank, isn’t given much to do. It isn’t until one of Harry’s Australian police force colleagues passes away that his alcoholism comes to the fore, making him both brilliant in terms of solving the investigation and destructive in terms of the laws he’ll break to see justice done. I’m of two minds about this. I certainly think the novel does a little bit of romanticizing alcoholism — even as it paints its ugly side — as Harry is ineffectual until he takes his first drink post-recovery. However, that’s also what makes the character of Harry Hole so appealing: he’s talented because of his flaws. Thus, that’s what makes the latter half of The Bat so readable, even as it gets a little farfetched at times. (Not to spoil things, but Harry gets into a barfight and isn’t reamed out by his superiors for doing so, which felt a bit unrealistic.)
What’s surprising about this book is the laidback pace, in comparison to something like Killing Moon which moved fast as there was a set deadline to solve the case in that work. There are several digressions into the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the continent as well as a bit of a history lesson thrown in, too. Also, the characters are generally well-developed, and it’s nice to see a queer character or two that isn’t entirely stereotypical show up in a book that’s now some 25 years old. I read a criticism of the novel online that mentioned the fact that some of the characters tend to speak in monologues, but I felt that this was realistic enough given the criminal investigation. People tend to speak in long paragraphs when they’re being interviewed, I’ve found. At the end of the day, it’s interesting to compare The Bat with Killing Moon. The beginning of the series starts with a simmer, and by the time of the 13th book, the serial killings had become quite outlandish as the author seemingly felt he had to one-up himself. In any event, The Bat is an effective and enjoyable start to the Harry Hole series. I now have only 11 books (and counting any new ones) to read and enjoy from here!
Jo Nesbø’s The Bat was first published in Norwegian in 1997 and then in English in 2012. The English paperback version by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard was published on July 2, 2013.
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