Harry is working on a bank robbery that ended in the death of one of the tellers. While he and his new partner Beate Lonn work the case, more robberies take place. They have got their work cut out for them.
Elsewhere in Harry’s life, Rakel and Oleg are in Moscow. Oleg’s father (a Russian professor) has sued for custody and it’s not looking good for Rakel. Harry has been walking the straight and narrow, both in terms of alcohol and staying faithful to Rakel, so it looks innocent when he accepts an invitation from Anna, a former lover to have dinner and discuss her new art project. Even though he only drank coke, he wakes up the next day with no memory of the prior 12 hours. Then Anna is found dead and while it looks like a suicide, Harry knows it isn’t. This was the storyline that gives the novel it’s title. He has got to stay one step ahead of Tom Waaler, because that shark can smell blood in the water and he needs to get rid of Harry once and for all. Then there’s this whole thing about gypsies.
I love the Harry Hole books, I really do, but this book was a tough slog for me. It felt like there were a two or three books crammed into one. I am not a big fan of Rakel, so perhaps that is part of it but the book felt herky jerky to me. What I did enjoy was the introduction of Beate Lonn, though, and the promise of some kind of satisfactory resolution of the Waaler Problem.
