Phantom
Jo Nesbo
Phantom
Harry Hole is back in Oslo. He's been away for some time, but his ghosts have a way of catching up with him. The case that brings him back is already closed. There is no room for doubt: the young junkie was shot dead by a fellow addict. Denied permission to reopen the investigation, Harry strikes out on his own. Beneath the city's eerie tranquillity, he discovers a trail of violence and mysterious disappearances seemingly unnoticed by the police. At every turn Harry is faced with a conspiracy of silence. Harry is not the only one who is interested in the case. From the moment he steps off the plane, someone is watching his every move and tracing his every call.
3.7 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
Crime, Thrillers & Mystery |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
464 |
| RRP |
£16.99 |
| Date of Publication |
March 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-1846555213 |
| Publisher |
Harvill Secker |
| |
Harry Hole is back in Oslo. He's been away for some time, but his ghosts have a way of catching up with him. The case that brings him back is already closed. There is no room for doubt: the young junkie was shot dead by a fellow addict. Denied permission to reopen the investigation, Harry strikes out on his own. Beneath the city's eerie tranquillity, he discovers a trail of violence and mysterious disappearances seemingly unnoticed by the police. At every turn Harry is faced with a conspiracy of silence. Harry is not the only one who is interested in the case. From the moment he steps off the plane, someone is watching his every move and tracing his every call.
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
Reviews
The Evening Standard
Unknown
“Phantom is a tragedy in several ways yet it doesn’t drip with typical Scandi gloom. What’s more, and what’s more important, is that it is a first-class thriller — Harry is in constant jeopardy — and the complex plot — peopled by carefully delineated characters not puppets — contains several twists some of which will make you gasp and at least one of which will make you cry. There is no shortage of special claims for crime novels that escape the straitjacket of genre. The consolations of genre are not to be underestimated but Phantom is Nesbø’s finest novel, a novel for grown-ups...”
08/03/2012
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The Daily Express
David Connett
“Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect Nesbo to reach the dizzying heights of his two previous books, The Snowman and The Leopard. How wrong I was. Phantom is arguably a much better book than any previous instalments. Nesbo wrings out the tension, by turns painful and delicious, with consummate skill.”
11/03/2012
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The Independent
Barry Forshaw
“Nesbo, as ever, is not interested in painting a tourist-friendly view of his country. He banishes cliché in this overworked genre — his recovering-alcoholic, shambolic, rule-breaking detective is somehow always surprising us. Some readers may have problems with a device recently used by Swedish writer Mons Kallentoft — narrative passages delivered by a dead man — but any reservations are brushed aside by the sheer sweep of the characterisation on offer. The relationship between Harry and Rakel is truly multifaceted, and richer in nuance than anything else in the crime genre. Phantom will maintain Jo Nesbo's unstoppable momentum.”
16/03/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Doug Johnstone
“… the line-by-line prose can be awful. Adverbs and adjectives pile up and weigh sentences down, there is far too much of Harry's clichéd internal monologue, and Nesbo's dialogue has a tendency to do one of two things: either meander aimlessly or be chock-full of cringeworthy plot exposition. But for all that, the plot keeps you reading. There is a relentless momentum to Phantom that is impossible to deny. That is not a skill to be sniffed at or underestimated, but reading Phantom, you just wish for the cleaner, tighter novel it could have been.”
18/03/2012
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The Times
Marcel Berlins
“Jo Nesbo’s The Leopard, the successor to his wonderful The Snowman, was an over-long disappointment. Phantom, his latest, comes midway between the two … there’s much violence about, but Nesbo’s extraordinary writing power still mesmerises. Where, though, can Harry Hole go from here?”
17/03/2012
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The Sunday Times
Joan Smith
“Nesbo is a powerful writer and there are some wrenching scenes ... [Hole's] pessimism pervades the novel, creating a fictional version of Oslo that’s unrelenting and melodramatic, but a bigger problem is the highly artificial device Nesbo adopts to maintain suspense. This is a series of passages in the voice of the murdered young man ... despite a clever plot twist, the final chapters deliver a punch that’s far from unexpected.”
04/03/2012
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