Appearing in his third novel, Detective Harry Hole, has completed the slide down the slippery slope of alcoholism as a result of the brutal death of his partner Ellen Gjelten in a prior novel. Hole blames the department's wonder boy Tom Waaler for her death. Further, he is convinced that Waaler is the head of an arms smuggling ring and although his sub rosa investigations have produced witnesses incriminating Waaler, they keep disappearing or revising their stories. Adding to Hole’s suffering is the fact that his love, Rakel, has left him.

Hole is a barely functioning alcoholic when one summer day in Oslo a woman is found murdered in her flat. One finger had been severed and beneath her eyelid was found a tiny red diamond in the shape of a star. Because it is vacation time, and the department is understaffed, his supervisor has assigned the case to Hole and to Waaler. Teetering on the edge of dismissal from the force, Harry knows he must work with Waaler.

Five days later, a man reports his wife as missing. Her severed finger is found wearing a ring with the same star shaped red diamond. And five days later a receptionist is killed in the ladies lavatory of a solicitor's office. She is found missing a finger and the same red star shaped diamond as an ear ring. The detectives must now face the dreaded concept of a serial killer who is playing with them with his riddles of 5. Five fingers, five days, five pointed star diamonds become an obsession for Harry as he works his way through the clues.

This is a very complicated plot that evolves on many levels in its 452 pages. Harry Hole is an anguished, driven hero operating on many levels with a host of secondary characters, some of whom were no doubt introduced in prior novels. These characters are not treated casually and the subplots they are enmeshed in become appealing facets of the whole.

The subtle nuances the author slides in will appeal to music fans and moviegoers alike as the tale twists among multiple points of view that even include soliloquies from the purported killer. The action can only be described as fast moving, albeit with a gradual ratcheting of tension as the author very artfully brings together a story strewn with red herrings, ambivalent clues and riddles to a very gritty conclusion.

The city of Oslo comes alive at the hands of a skilled craftsman as Nesbro segues seamlessly from scene to scene, subplot to plot with characters always in voice, and the pacing comfortable for the type of story. Essentially The Devil’s Star highlights the police procedure in the hunt for the killer and the struggle between Waaler and Harry. Revenge becomes the overriding theme portrayed in a story about a serial killer with a very, very different slant. It is this twist the reader will remember in this excellent novel.  

--Thea Davis