Don't Understand the Logic

Last year, Norwegian author Jo Nesbo made his American debut with The Redbreast. The book gained quite a bit of critical buzz this side of the pond. My issue with The Redbreast is the fact that it's not actually the first book to feature hero Inspector Harry Hole. In fact, after much searching, it doesn't look like they're publishing any of his books in order.

From what I can find, thanks to Euro Crime, a great UK book blog that I think I have mentioned here before, the series is as follows:

1. The Bat Man

2. Cockroach

3. Redbreast

4. Nemesis

5. Devil's Star

6. The Redeemer

7. The Snowman

Not all of the titles have even been published in his native country. As of right now, The Redbreast is the only one of Nesbo's titles that is available here in the states. Devil's Star was actually the first of Nesbo's titles to be translated into English. Nemesis has a laydown date of this month, but is showing Random House Canada as the publisher. HUH?

So, yeah, not quite sure what logic is driving these decisions, but I've got Devil's Star coming courtesy of High Crimes and their fab international ordering system. I guess I'll have to decide if I want to pay the extra for Nemesis or take my chances and wait for it to finally be officially released here.

So after all that rambling, here's the starred review of The Redbreast from PW as posted on Amazon (hopefully I'll get to reading this one this week, but we'll see):

"Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian Nesbø (The Devil's Star) spins a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality. But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it's up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches. Perfectly paced and painfully suspenseful, this crime novel illuminates not only Norway's alleged Nazi ties but also its present skinhead subculture. Readers will delight in Hole, a laconic hero as doggedly stubborn as Connelly's Harry Bosch, and yet with a prickly appeal all his own."