Getting an earlier perspective of Harry Hole at the start of his career was really great. Packed with action and much needed good hearted banter made for an excellent novel. Was easy to become immersed in the who dun it and pass many hours trying to figure it out. The Bat was classic Jo Nesbit at its finest.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

All fans of Nesbo's tragic hero, Harry, will be rewarded to meet him at the beginning of his career as a cop, because we can finally understand what notivates his self destructive assault on his life, his lack of concern for his own well-being, and the reason he can never have a happy ending. Guilt, the great motivator, snaps at the edges of all Harry's dreams.
But the very thing that harms his self-esteem makes him a relentlessly driven cop, determined to catch the Very Bad Guys in order to mend the shredded fabric of the world. In the process, we get to know the underpinnings of a Scandanavian culture that is mostly unknown to English speaking readers.
Fearless fans of these mysteries will find many of their own family photo albums that they thought were safely stashed in the basement, but Nesbo's skill and seamy imagination opens the door and we willingly cross the threshold and walk down the dark stairs.

An excellent start to the Harry Hole series. I've read several others already so was familiar with some of his backstory, but this gives you the whole thing. There are some great twists and turns in this. When I first met the murderer, I thought that there was a potential, not that the person was a suspect, but that the placement was a possibility. That left quite a bit of room for who could be involved.

Another excellent book in the series.

Harry Hole heads to Sydney after a Norwegian woman living in Sydney is found murdered. Although he's asked to stay out of the way and on the sidelines, he manages to forge a close bond with the lead detective and earn the respect (or at least the cooperation of the rest of the squad).
I don't know if it's because I haven't read other Norwegian works or if things were lost in translation, but this book seemed so 'philosophical' for a mystery. While I do appreciate a moment or two of introspection as detectives usually do, this book launched into long stretches of long winded thoughts. It spent a lot more time on this than the case itself. The pace of the book was a bit slow for me and the romance seemed an afterthought- I wasn't invested in the romance, unfortunately. I also felt like the brutality at the end was too jarring especially because the case just meandered along till the last 20 pages of the book.
But, the redeeming grace if this book is how much you learn about Australian Aboriginal culture, especially as someone who doesnt live in the region and is ignorant of its nature.

2.5 stars. The Bat is the 1st in the Harry Hole crime series written by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo in 1997. It was not translated and released in English until some of his later books were available in translation and became popular bestsellers. Jo Nesbo's books featuring Harry Hole were heavily promoted as the next big thing in Nordic Noir. There are now 12 books available in this series, and I have read and mainly enjoyed six of them. I became familiar with Nordic Noir through Sieg Larsson's splendid Blomkist and Salander stories set in Sweden. I also enjoyed TV series with mysteries set in this bleak and dark environment.

I was disappointed that this first book was set on the other side of the world in sunny Australia, moving it far away from Nordic Noir in mood and substance. I found The Bat to be slow-paced, convoluted and dull, with little indication that his later books would contain much energy and excitement, with well-written, twisty surprises. Harry Hole is sent to Sydney, Australia, to consult with their police department on a brutal assault and murder of a young Norwegian woman working in a bar. Harry is told on arrival that he is to follow orders and not to investigate on his own.

He is partnered with an Aboriginal detective, who takes Harry on a sightseeing tour of some local tourist attractions, restaurants, bars, and a stage show featuring a flamboyant character who performs as a clown, in drag, and a magic act. They visit a boxing match. There is a lot of filler about areas around Sydney. Harry is told Aboriginal folktales and legends and learns how indigenous children were separated from their families and divorced from their tribes and culture.

Setting the story in Australia seemed a peculiar choice for a Nordic writer. I don't know if Australian readers will approve, but having worked in and around Sydney years ago, I was slightly amused. It is discovered that a serial killer may be travelling around the country, abducting, raping and strangling young blond women. The police force and Harry begin to see a pattern of murder here. As Harry meets more people associated with the dead Norwegian woman through his partner, they both turn their attention to the drug trade and local sex offenders. Harry becomes the object of jokes as he offers a new name as a probable suspect at most meetings.

Much reads like a travel guide for places around Sydney and native legends and philosophizing. The murder case that Harry came to oversee is forgotten chiefly for periods of time. We learn some background history in flashbacks that helps us understand Harry's flawed and damaged character. He is guilt-ridden and self-destructive but determined to bring criminals to justice. His self-esteem seems low, and he treats women poorly. His failed romances in the past and now in Australia and his sex exploits do little to edify his character. He is a recovering alcoholic but goes on drinking binges while on the Australian serial killer case, to the point of falling down drunk and throwing up, but still, he prevails.

If The Bat had been my first Harry Hole book, I doubt if I would have continued with a series that later became compelling and addictive for readers. At the end of this book, there is an excerpt from the 13th Harry Hole crime thriller, The Killing Moon, to be published May 30th. This takes Harry far away from Norway once more. It is to be set in LA. Apparently, he does not like the cold Norwegian winters. It looks exciting.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to understand Harry Hole better and for the ARC of this early book in the series.

This is an excellent book, that had my heart racing many times. Finding ourpt who the killer was and tracking them had me glued to my book,even when I needed to be elsewhere. I have not read any of the Harry Hole books before, but after enjoying thus one, I will be reading more of them.

Harry Hole, an Inspector of the Oslo Crime Squad, is sent to Australia to observe the murder case of a Norwegian woman. Despite his best intentions, he becomes directly involved in the investigation when it is discovered the investigation he is observing is eerily similar to a string of unsolved murders across the country.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I found the writing style engaging, it was full of suspense and best of all, I was unable to predict the ending. I was pleased to discover this is the first in a 13 book series as I intend to read more Harry Hole novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book. I have read several of this author's other books from this series and really enjoyed them. I have read them out of order and hadn't yet read the first book in the series. I was looking forward to reading about how it all began and some history about the main character (Harry), a Norwegian police officer. I have to honestly say that I was disappointed in this book. It's not that it wasn't well written, because it was...but it was quite underwhelming. The tension wasn't there until the end of the book, and the mystery/crime/thriller aspect was just lacking. There was a lot of time spent with stories and legends from the Aboriginals of Australia (the setting of the book), which for a first book, ended up being too much and really threw off the pace of the book and the story about the actual crime got lost in my opinion. It seemed to take too long to "get to the point", which slowed the progress toward the ultimate resolution to the point that to me, once the killer was finally revealed (and it was a confusing road to get there too), it just fell flat to me. I'm glad I read the other books in this series first, because if I'd read them in order, I'd have likely stopped after this one. I can honestly say that I will still read the others in the series (the ones I still haven't gotten to yet), because I did like the ones I had read prior to this. The author and translator of the books (they are originally published in the author's native language) have done a good job with the series overall. But this book fell a bit flat to me. Too much time going over these stories and legends of Australian aboriginal culture (which I would have appreciated if there hadn't been so many and so much time spend doing this), and not enough time actually building the main character.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I have been vaguely aware of this series for some time and so requested a copy of this, the first instalment, to give it a try. I will not be continuing with the others. I found the translation slightly clunky, and the tone very matey and irritating. Harry was an unlikeable character, and all the women in the book were disposable and treated badly. There were constant info dumps, mainly about Aboriginal culture, but also about a whole array of other things, and these slowed things down and felt unnecessary.

Disappointed.

An introduction to Harry Hole, although other books have come before, was a little confusing. I enjoyed many of the characters outside of the police force and the author succeeded in his usual way of developing a very tangled mysterious web. Not my favourite of this author, but a very readable novel set in Australia. 4 stars may be a bit generous.

Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for review.

I have wanted to read Jo Nesbo for quite awhile. This being the first book of the series and based in Australia myy interest was absolutely piqued.

The story was riveting with enough twists to keep my interest and keep me guessing. I really appreciated the parts of Indigenous history that were included in the novel.

I am looking forward to continuing the series.

2.5/5 stars.

This was a very different read than what I'm used to. I haven't read many translated books so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect in terms of the storytelling, flow, dialogue, etc. Some of the phrasing was a bit clunky but still relatively cohesive.

Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is sent to Sydney to observe a murder case, where he is free to observe but must stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who also happens to be a minor celebrity. In collaboration with the detective assigned to the case, Harry and the detective discover clues that point to an unhinged psychopath.

Let's start off with what I found to be the most unusual aspect of the plot, and arguably the most poignant, the murder investigation. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to how the investigation took place. It was all very convoluted and nonsensical. I found it very difficult to follow the logic behind the clues that were discovered and the way things panned out. The last 25-30% of the novel is what saved my whole experience because everything started to come together. I may have missed certain clues to point out who is the murderer but I was certainly surprised and did not have any clear idea who it may be. So that was a plus for me.

The storytelling is peculiar and at times difficult to follow. There's a lot of extraneous information dumped at infrequent intervals, mostly in regard to Australia and its population but also in a philosophical nature. To some this may be very interesting but I found it distracting and did not find that this added anything to the plot in a significant way and instead was something I could not be more excited to get through. Another issue I had with the storytelling was the fact that the pacing was uneven. It's a slower-paced police procedural but at times is very rambling and others very direct. It felt like whiplash as I read. Finally, the change in setting, change in characters with Harry, change of topic was never properly identified so I was consistently having to re-read to figure out where the transition happened. There's a lot to be said about polishing a story and it was unfortunately lacking here.

Harry Hole is a deeply flawed character to say the least. He is a bit of mess to follow as the story progresses as he has many issues that he needs to contend with, both is in his past and present. While I couldn't really connect with him, I did enjoy learning a little about his backstory and seeing how this has shaped him into the police inspector that he is now.

Overall, I am not certain I will be continuing the series.

<i>I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, of this advanced digital copy for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review! All opinions shared are my own.</i>

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. I have read other books by this author and liked them too.

I really enjoyed reading this book, i liked how it flowed and the pacing was good. I liked that Harry was a flawed character, and how his past was revealed.

i thought it was interesting that he was a Norwegian detective but the story was set in Australia, with every one calling him Harry Holy no matter how many time he corrected them.

Will definitely read more jo nesbo books in future and will continue the Harry Hole series

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book