Author:	Jo Nesbø
Title:	The Redeemer
Published:	2005; 2009 in English
Genre/Sub-Genre:	Police procedural
Plot summary:	A hitman is hired to carry out a contract killing in Oslo but the wrong victim - a Salvation Army officer - is killed and the hitman is unable to escape from Oslo. When the hitman realises he has murdered the wrong person, he sets out to track down the correct victim - another Salvation Army officer. Harry Hole and his team work desperately to identify the hitman. Corruption and corruptibility play a significant part in the plot, along with a back-story from the Balkan war of the 1990s. The plot has a good twist at the end.
Overall:	A long complicated read at 500 pages, with multiple themes and characters. It could have been pruned to make it tighter. The best aspect is the carrying out of the police investigation. Nesbø seems to throw stuff in to make the book longer and hopefully more interesting  but perhaps he overdoes it.
Plotting:	It unfolds rather languidly as Harry explores various avenues, occasionally throwing up some quite exciting moments. However it only really becomes dramatic towards the end. Some of the violence is gratuitous and adds little. The investigative techniques as Harry unravels the truth are a strong point of the book.
Characterisation:	I don’t know much about the Salvation Army so I can’t comment on how plausible those characters are. Most of the police characters are plausible and well know from previous books. Harry’s new boss is an interesting man, with whom Harry interacts in his usual disrespectful way as he strikes his own path.
Dialogue:	Straightforward. Harry is toned down somewhat.
Setting and Description:	I think this is Nesbø’s weakest area - nothing very distinctively Norwegian comes through while the portrayal of Oslo is rather bland.
Readability:	Very readable, I enjoyed working my way through it/
Sub-plots:	Not entirely necessary in my opinion. One concerns the hitman presumably to explain why he went down that path and possibly to justify his behaviour but it didn’t convince me. I couldn’t see the point of a sub-plot with Harry’s ex-girlfriend. Harry’s affair with a Salvation Army lass seemed unnecessary too other than to give him a bit more angst when she’s threatened. Another sub-plot involving Harry’s previous boss raised interesting but unnecessary possibilities about police corruption.
Read another by same author?	Yes