The Bat, Jo Nesbo

Another one of those periodical restarts of a favourite series, some of which actually get off the ground, some of which linger in the piles of unread books, mostly due to lack of time / organisation (which I'm working on).

THE BAT is the first of the Harry Hole series, which is now up to 13 books in total, a few of the later ones I've not had a chance to read yet. Released originally in 1997 I vaguely remember my first reading of THE BAT, some time after that, and was startled to find a Scandinavian writer setting a book in Australia. At the time I also remember it getting some less than stellar "press", mostly I think probably because it's a slow burner to the point where it does take some commitment on the part of the reader to stick with a story that takes quite a while to get moving, if ever really fully launched.

On the other hand, for this reader, the re-read reminded me of how important setting and sense of place became in this series. Somehow Hole, dealing with sunburn and the Australian sensibility (or lack thereof to be fair), feels very fish out of water. On another hand, it also serves as an excellent vehicle to introduce the reader to a seriously flawed man, with a complex past, and a future that is unsure, to go with an understatement.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, has always said that the first two books in this excellent series - (this one, and COCKROACHES) are at best to be avoided. Whilst I'd definitely agree that they probably don't serve as the greatest introduction to what Harry Hole became in later books, they do fill in some of the backstory of who he is, how he got to be there, and what happens when you take him out of his snowy, cold comfort zone.