I'm generally a fan of Harry Hole and am hesitate to accept substitutes, but this one, at the start, kind of threw me for a little because I don't care too much for serial killers.... I appreciated the more culturally-grounded motivations of a book like Red Breast or a personal grudge like Nemesis, etc. I just wasn't intrigued by another book of muzzy psychology, which these kinds of stories always seem to evolve into.

But I shouldn't have worried-- the motivations might've been psychological and rooted in childhood traumas, but the procedural elements of this mystery are top notch, as Nesbo's thrillers usually are, and I really liked this, thought it was brisk and well-paced. In previous books, I felt Nesbo through in one twist too many on the way to a resolution, but this one seemed to not suffer that problem. I knew pretty well that the second to last suspect wasn't the guilty party, and I think Harry did, too, so no harm, no foul.