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    The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8
    Unavailable
    The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8
    Unavailable
    The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8
    Audiobook21 hours

    The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8

    Written by Jo Nesbo

    Narrated by Robin Sachs

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction . . . Jo Nesbø wins." -Marcel Berlins, The Times (U.K.)

    Two young women are found murdered in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches fever pitch: Could this be the work of a serial killer?

    The crime scenes offer no coherent clues, the police investigation is stalled, and the one man who might be able to help doesn't want to be found. Traumatized by his last case, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong's opium dens. Yet when he is compelled, at last, to return to Norway-his father is dying-Harry's buried instincts begin to take over. After a female MP is discovered brutally murdered, nothing can keep him from the investigation.

    There is little to go on: a piece of rope, a scrap of wool, a bit of gravel, an unexpected connection between the victims. And Harry will soon come to understand that he is dealing with a psychopath for whom "insanity is a vital retreat," someone who will put him to the test-in both his professional and personal lives-as never before.

    Ruthlessly intelligent and suspenseful, The Leopard is Jo Nesbø's most electrifying novel yet-absolutely gripping from first to last.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 13, 2011
    ISBN9780307917614
    Unavailable
    The Leopard: A Harry Hole Novel, Book 8
    Author

    Jo Nesbo

    A musician, songwriter, and economist, Jo Nesbø is also one of Europe’s most acclaimed crime writers, and is the winner of the Glass Key Award, northern Europe’s most prestigious crime-fiction prize, for his first novel featuring Police Detective Harry Hole. Nesbø lives in Oslo.

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    Reviews for The Leopard

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Another dark, but typically riveting, volume in the Harry Hole series.  
    • 4/5
      Love the fallible anti-hero that is Harry Hole!
    • 4/5
      Som alltid tight fra Nesbø, men likevel ikke helt på nivå med noen av de andre bøkene om Hole. Den ble likevel slukt - mannen er god på å få deg til å lese bare én side til...
    • 5/5
      So tief unten war Harry Hole noch nie. Gestrandet in Hongkong, die Nächte in einer Massenunterkunft für Gastarbeiter verbringend, den Geistern der Vergangenheit diesmal mit Opium statt Alkohol entfliehend und auf der Flucht vor den Triaden denen er Geld schuldet. Doch seiner neuen Kollegin Kaja Solness gelingt es, ihn zurück nach Norwegen zu bringen: doch nicht, weil das Morddezernat seine Hilfe braucht, sondern weil sein Vater im Sterben liegt. Und weil er dann schon mal da ist... Die zwei ungeklärten Mordfälle, wegen deren man ihn um Hilfe gebeten hat, erregen seine Neugier und als während seines Aufenthaltes eine dritte Person stirbt, ist sein Interesse geweckt. Als ob diese Todesfälle nicht anspruchsvoll genug wären, findet er sich zudem inmitten des Polizeiapparates in einer weiteren Kampfzone bzw. einem Intrigenspiel wieder: Morddezernat und Kriminalamt ringen jeweils um die alleinige Kompetenz für die Aufklärung von Mordermittlungen - und er spielt dabei eine entscheidende Rolle.
      Wie auch in seinen bisherigen Büchern (zumindest in den zweien, die ich bisher (leider erst) gelesen habe), ist nichts so wie es scheint, was insbesondere auf die handelnden Personen zutrifft. Immer wieder führt Nesbø vor, wie schnell man sich von Äußerlichkeiten blenden lässt, selbst Harry ist nicht immer dagegen gefeiht. Man fällt von einer Überraschung in die nächste und sogar als man sicher zu sein scheint, die Lösung zu kennen, gelingt es dem Autor noch weitere 150 Seiten Leserinnen und Leser an das Buch zu fesseln. Es sind häufig sehr extreme Wendungen, aber dennoch ist der Verlauf im Nachhinein durchweg in sich schlüssig.
      Nesbø schreibt detailliert und anschaulich, wie beispielsweise die Aufenthalte Holes im Kongo oder das Lawinenunglück. Für nicht so blutrünstige Lesende vielleicht etwas zu anschaulich, denn die Darstellungen der unterschiedlichen Todesarten sind teilweise schon heftige Kost. Kein Buch für schwache Gemüter.
      Alles in allem beste Thrillerunterhaltung für mehrere Stunden - am besten am Wochenende! Denn man wird sich schwer damit tun, das Buch vor dem Ende aus der Hand zu legen.
      Eine Anmerkung noch zum Schluss: Wie der deutsche Verlag auf diesen Titel kam, ist mir (fast) ein Rätsel. Es gibt lediglich einen Absatz im Buch zu diesem Tier (S. 206) und er passt weder auf Harry noch den Täter. Der norwegische Titel Panzerherz wäre deutlich stimmiger gewesen.
    • 4/5
      This book did not disappoint. As usual Nesbo, writes such an intricate tale weaving a story that you cannot guess the ending. In this book you really feel Harry Holes pain of living in a hell created by understanding a killers psyche, leaving him too traumatised to take part in the world as normal. There were so many levels to this book, leaving the ending a total mystery until the last bit.
    • 4/5
      I have managed to read these books all in the wrong order. This was very readable and I enjoyed it, although some of the violence and descriptions of the murder victims is quite strong. I don't really know what I'm going to do about reading the rest of them as I wanted to read The Snowman but this book told me who did it!
    • 4/5
      This follow-up to The Snowman is another compelling, although truely brutal, crime thriller. It's full of twists and turns, betrayals and red herrings. A little over long and far-fetched for my liking, but definitely worth a read.
    • 3/5
      Audiobook. Harry Hole, a Norwegian detective. This is mid in his story. Fine story. I am a sucker for thriller. But I have downloaded several other Harry Hole stories. Better than average. And the setting (not American, not British) makes this worth the listen. Lots of snow too. That seemed appropriate.
    • 5/5
      These are my notes for my own future reference - hence there likely will be spoilers ahead. The Leopard was completed 2/17/11 and is my 12th book of the year. It is the eighth book in the series and the sixth to be translated. I have read all of his books available in English. I rated this book 5 stars, my first 5 star of the year. This is a terrific book, Nesbo's best by far. It begins with Harry in Hong kong licking his wounds from his encounter with the Snowman as well as some bad HK characters. Kaja, a very attractive cop, but with small teeth, is dispatched from Norway to bring him back - the Murder Squad is in trouble. At the halfway point, I decided to log for the next 100 pages 'wow moments', e.g a scene from within an avalanche, Harry is betrayed by _____ ; there were twelve such wm! Ditto for the next 100 pages! Needless to say this is breath-taking, twisting and always surprising plotting. As always, engaging characters including not one, not two, but three women, all to die for (pun?). And as usual lots of dead bodies, a wrong suspect or two or three, and just when you think the story is finally over you note that there are still more than a hundred pages to go, but that's a Nesbo trademark if there is only one. And Nesbo has definitely taken it up a notch, more confident writing, he really knows his guy. Harry has cleaned up his act too, relatively speaking. So, at the end of the story is he really back where he started....?
    • 5/5
      I've spent a bit of time worrying about how I can review THE LEOPARD without spoilers, because, although you could read it as your first taste of Nesbo, it is really not a stand-alone. However, if you've got it's fat pages in your hands then don't let me prevent you from reading it. But it will make you want to read earlier novels particularly THE SNOWMAN and REDBREAST.At the end of THE SNOWMAN, as the blurb says, Harry Hole, deeply traumatised, resigned from the Crime Squad, and took off for Hong Kong where he attempted to lose himself. The only detective in Norway who has any experience in dealing with serial killers is Harry Hole, and that is why Politioverbetjent Gunnar Hagen wants him back. He sends an officer to Hong Kong to find Harry and bring him back. But it is the news that his father is dying that puts Harry on that plane.But solving this case is more urgent than just stopping a serial killer. A long standing battle has re-surfaced, not just good versus evil. The Minister of Justice is wondering yet again why he is paying for two criminal investigation units. It’s all about cuts and rationalisation in the force. About jurisdiction. The old fight, Crime Squad versus Kripos. Whether there are enough resources for two specialist branches with parallel expertise in a small country. The discussion flared up when Kripos got a new second in command, one Mikael Bellman.It's a battle that Gunnar Hagen wants to win, and finding and stopping a serial killer will do it.THE LEOPARD is seriously noir, not for the faint-hearted. There are descriptions of torture that will take your breath away. Things that Harry does to himself that will nearly make your heart stop. But you'll keep reading because you'll want to know how it all turns out.I thought I got a better vision of Harry Hole, saw him in a clearer light in THE LEOPARD. He felt a bit more human too. ..... the man who was a living legend not just at Oslo Police HQ but in every police station across Norway, for good or ill. .......He liked Harry Hole, had liked him from the first moment he had clapped eyes on the tall, athletic, but obviously alcoholic Norwegian stepping into Happy Valley to put his last money on the wrong horse. There was something about the aggressive expression, the arrogant bearing, the alert body language that reminded him of himself .. A driven man. A junkie. A man who does what he must to have what he wants, who walks over dead bodies if need be. He couldn’t care less about personal prestige, he only wants to catch the bad boys. All the bad boys.The other thing that seems to emerge more for me in THE LEOPARD was Jo Nesbo, through his characters, considering criminological and philiosophical issues. What is it, where is it, whatever it is that makes a murderer? Is it innate, is it in a gene, inherited potential that some have and others do not? Or is it shaped by need, developed in a confrontation with the world, a survival strategy, a life-saving sickness, rational insanity? For just as sickness is a fevered bombardment of the body, insanity is a vital retreat to a place where one can entrench oneself anew. For my part, I believe that the ability to kill is fundamental to any healthy person.and again That was what life was: a process of destruction, a disintegration from what at the outset was perfect. The only suspense involved was whether we would be destroyed in one sudden act or slowly.Perhaps it has always been there in previous novels, but I've just missed seeing it.A great read, if just a bit long. By the end, I really did want it to finish.
    • 3/5
      Why are so many Scandinavian writers compelled to base their heroes on Hamlet, that flawed and depressingly complex prince? Mankell’s Wallander is hardly a barrel of laughs, and don’t get me started on Larsson’s Blomqvist and Salander. Despite a promising start in earlier books, Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole [pronounced WHO-leh] has proved true to type and spreads doom and gloom through this book. In a story reaching from the Congo to Norway, and from East Germany to Hong Kong, Harry reluctantly becomes embroiled in investigating a serial killer who murders at least seven seemingly unrelated victims in a variety of sadistic ways.What connects the victims? Who is the missing link and why is he being protected? What happened in the isolated mountains fastness and how can Harry’s past nemesis assist him? Long and overly complicated, turgid prose and emotional indulgence obscure what is an excellent plot.
    • 4/5
      This is my first book by Nesbo and I have to say he does write an excellent murder-thriller. Several times I was convinced I knew the killer's identity only for Nesbo to reveal his misdirection and point me somewhere else. This is an above average book of its type and a clear leader in the Scandinavian sub-genre of serial killer stories.The portrayal of Norway as a hotbed of political calculations is new to me and adds some spice to the mix. The Norwegian settings are natural but entirely novel to someone not familiar with that society. As with other Scandinavian authors Nesbo reveals a very dark underbelly to the liberal paradise.This is a very dark story with every character depressed, distraught, depraved, a failure, an alcoholic or in some other way on the bottom rungs of social achievement. It is an interesting PhD project for someone to analyse why the only people I an aware of as smokers these days are characters in books and films...I absolutely recommend this as a top notch thriller, just don't expect to fal for, or even like, any of the characters.
    • 4/5
      Reason for Reading: next in the series.Harry Hole is in a personal mess after his last case and has hidden himself away in Hong Kong, but Norway seems to have a new serial killer in their midst and they are stumped. FBI trained serial killer expert Harry Hole must be tracked down and persuaded to come home and a detective is sent to find and bring him back. Hole does come back but only because his father is ill. Not really wanting to get back into the police business he can't help himself when he finally reads the cases of the two women who have been killed by an ancient torture device called a Leopold's Apple. And when he arrives on the scene of the third victim's horrendous torturous death he is hooked on finding the killer.This is a riveting and unique crime thriller. The crime itself was unusual and a tough one to guess before the final reveal. Several twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat and the murders are quite gruesome while Jo Nesbo keeps his writing to a level where he describes just enough that your imagination takes over the rest. I really enjoyed crime, as usual, I know I can count on Jo Nesbo for a great thriller. I'm a bit annoyed with the Stieg Larsson comparison brazenly stamped on the cover though. Nesbo doesn't need that kind of lip service. He is an established author in his own right, something that unfortunately Larsson will never be able to become having only written 3 books. The comparison should be the other way around.I did have problems with the book though. First, it is too long. At just over 600 pgs, in this format, probably coming in at close to 500 in a smaller print, it just takes too much time to tell the story. There were parts where it lagged, that felt like filler, that were devoted to character development and main character story issues that just weren't all that interesting. I'm not very pleased with the direction Harry's personal story has gone and I just wanted the book to get back to the crime. Also, I never did figure out why the book is called "The Leopard". I know the old saying about a leopard never changing it's spots; perhaps that refers to Harry? I don't know. But looking at the Norwegian title "panserhjerte" which translates to "Armoured Heart" in English makes perfect sense as that phrase is found in the story. Also this book mentions the first book in the series quite a bit, and that one has not been translated into English yet which I find just plain weird. Now that they are caught up with Nesbo's writing, I wish they'd go back and translate those first two books. A good story, as can always be counted on with Nesbo, but not my favourite.
    • 3/5
      If your only toe into the waters of Scandanavian mystery writing is Stieg Larsson, take a look at the Jo Nesbo collection. Harry Hole, Nesbo's detective, was once a well-respected cop but his erratic love life, his alcoholism, the corruption around him (a superior was the undiscovered villain in two successive novels) and the frequency with which he or one of his colleagues is in a near death/death situation make these novels at least as interesting as what Larsson's 'girl' is up to.
    • 4/5
      Following the traumatic closure in his last case, Harry Hole resigns from the Crime Squad and leaves Norway. He's found in Hong Kong rather the worse for the wear. Facing new demons, he returns to Norway, is pulled into an undercover investigation into a case of gruesome multiple murders, finds himself a pawn in political feuding between the Crime Squad and Kripos, has to deal with a betrayal and struggles to cope with a personal crisis. Traversing between the Congo and Norway, Harry's investigations uncovers a a torture tool that may have been purchased in the Congo and smuggled into Norway, used in some of the murders. When he suspects a group of vacationers in a ski cabin of being the targets for the serial killer, he races to uncover the identify of the other guests at the cabin before the killer strikes again. He even pays a visit to an old foe in an attempt to understand the motive behind the killings.Trying to stay one step ahead of the killer and his new nemesis at work, Harry falls prey to the lure of alcohol once more. When he becomes a target for the killer himself, he realizes he is has nobody but himself to rely on and that time is running out.
    • 3/5
      I don't believe that I finally finished this book. It is good but sometimes I got lost with long descriptions of a secondary character and it is too long.
    • 4/5
      For lover's of the Harry Hole crime series, this 8th story finds our intrepid (and flawed) hero drawn back to Norway in search of a serial killer with a unique killing toy/tool. His inter- and intra-departmental woes continues as he rubs just about everyone the wrong way.
    • 4/5
      The first book of Nesbo's that i've read. Very capturing and not dissimilar to other books based in Scandinavia that i have read
    • 3/5
      A serial killer cop story - not bad, as these things go.
    • 4/5
      Inspector Harry Hole is at it again, resigning that is. After the last traumatic episode his wife and stepson have left him and Hole finds his way to the opium dens of Hong Kong to wallow in self-pity and disappear from the real world.
      He is dragged from the viper’s pit when two young women are found, brutally murdered with another unique method that Nesbo seems to relish in bringing to the unsuspecting public, along with a third suspected of the same murderer. Hole is Norway’s expert at catching serial killers. The news that Hole’s father is on his death-bed has more reason for him to return. He is done with police work, just ask him.
      In a wild chase that leads us through the ski slopes and lakes of Norway to the outer regions of the Congo on Africa’s western plains Hole traces the suspect, now of several other bizarre murders as he tries to find the common link that brings all these hapless soles into the path of the killer.
      When State run authorities impede his progress Hole strikes out alone, as usual, with all the skills of a modern-day Colombo, to unmask the culprit in his own style. Talking of style, for those of you that have had the pleasure of reading Nesbo’s other US published novels I started to complain to myself when I discovered a pattern in his work only to have that shattered in a matter of pages, almost like Nesbo set a trap. Don’t try and get into his or Hole’s head; he will shred you.
      The Leopard is a work of pure genius, a skillfully woven mystery with enough action and gore to thrill the regular suspense lover in you. Nesbo has done it again; brilliant.
    • 4/5
      Unfortunately I started this series in the middle but that didn't prevent me from being introduced to the tortured Harry Hole and the serial murderer he is called back to Norway to find. The story opens in Hong Kong where Harry is in trouble with gambling debts and a serious alcohol problem. A detective from his old detective department finds him and tells him his father is seriously ill. That is the only thing that could entice him to return to Oslo after dealing with a particularly nasty murderer who did something to his wife and son, the Snowman.On his return he deals with the inevitable departmental power struggle and begins to learn what the police have not been able to about the murderer. What did the growing number of victims have in common and what was the instrument of torture that was used?Harry is the quintessential flawed hero who has suffered major, major trauma but is the best at what he does which is hunting down and stopping terrible, horrible people. People who know him, who may not like him, still respect him and use his unique talents.
    • 5/5
      Harry Hole's 8th investigation is just as exciting and entertaining as the previous ones. The only thing is that the structure of the books tend to be a bit similar to each other: Mysterious, serial killer-like murders happen in Norway -> they has to dig out Harry Hole from somewhere -> he brilliantly solves the case (with some errors in between) and breaks a lot of rules -> at the travels somewhere for urther self-destroying.
    • 4/5
      It took me almost two months to read this book because of what my time is like. I usually only read a book in bed before going to sleep; a few chapters. This is quite a long book. I'm expressing this because Jo Nesbo gave me almost two months of enthralling reading. It's a good sign when I pick up a book 24 hours after I had last read it and still know exactly what's going on. I don't know if it's proper to call a serial-killer story fun, but for me this one was.
    • 4/5
      Tricksy ... very tricksy indeed! The ending, while interesting, seemed to linger on overlong, hence only 4 stars.
    • 3/5


      Really good crime novel. Surrounding a set of murders that baffles the Oslo police such that they have to get Harry Hole back from Hong Kong where he has been on drugs. He comes back into a power struggle between the Oslo Crime Squad and the National Police. More people are killed until they track down the people responsible. I really liked the plotting in that you kept thinking that it had been figured out - but it hadn't. There were more layers below than first met the eye.
    • 4/5
      Another fabulous book about Inspector Harry Hole. It's a long book, but it moves quickly. Nesbo's plotting is magnificent; his characters are interesting and realistically complex; his writing is enthralling. (I did read the first few pages a couple of times before I was able to get past them. The opening scene is well done, just very horrible.)
    • 4/5
      This is a page turner--little doubt about that. But felt a bit like a Chinese food page turner--did not stick with me very long. This is the second in the series that I have read. Good, entertaining beach read with plenty of twists and turns but will not change your life.
    • 5/5
      My new favorite mystery writter. Not sure I love Hole like some of the other repeat people but the stories are fantastic. Maybe it is the cold weather that makes the writers so good.
    • 4/5
      I like the Harry Hole series and this doesn't disappoint. The violence is brutal but it makes a great page turner all the way through quite a long book.
    • 3/5
      Harry Hole has retreated to Hong Kong after his last case put his love, Rakal, and her son in danger. He’s drowning himself in liquor and drugs when a fellow detective hunts him down to enlist his help in finding the killer of two women who had died in bizarre ways. His return pits him against Mikael Bellman of Kripos who plans to move major crimes from the Crime Squad. Since Bellman confiscates the murder cases from Crime Squad, Harry and his team start to investigate the disappearance of another woman, which Harry already suspects is part of the murder cases. One of the bizarre murder weapons is called Leopold’s apple which has twenty-four needles which extract when the victim attempts to pull the apple from her mouth. Harry does a lot of traveling in this book from Hong Kong to Africa where they mine a special alloy called coltan used in the springs and needles of the apple, to the snowy mountains housing cabins which nestle in avalanche territory. Harry’s crew includes Kaja, a new detective who is easing Harry’s loss of Rakal, as well as Bjorn Holm. He is suspicious of Tony Leike, who had stayed at the cabin where Harry surmises each of the victims at one time had also stayed. Tony has latched onto a rich woman whose family has invested heavily in Tony’s business. The writer puts Harry in more danger than a lion tamer without a whip. He is beaten, caught in an avalanche, and tortured. At almost 700 pages, the plot and names get confusing and one can only think a few hundred pages could have been pared. The writing is still top-notch but one wonders if Harry is beyond repair. He is so good at his job that the bosses can’t fire him yet in the end Harry is his own worst enemy.