Jun 252014
Read in March 2014
Nemesis, by Jo Nesbo
Three stars
Two crimes are offered in Norwegian author Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis — a bank robbery that includes the murder of an employee and the suicide or murder of a woman with whom the investigator once had a fling. There is plenty of investigatory detail for lovers of police procedurals, but I figured out whodunit early on in both cases, a rare feat for me since that’s not what I read for, which may mean the novel will be unsatisfactory for those who do. Unfortunately, Nesbo’s character demonstrates several detective cliches — he’s a gifted but unmanageable cop, the strong silent type, and an alcoholic who’s on the wagon. At just under 500 pages, the book is easily one-third too long.