The Bat

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A USA Today Critic's Pick

"This is an absolute must for devotees of the riveting train wreck that is Harry Hole. . . . While the chronological confusion is disconcerting, it adds a layer of dramatic irony to the tale and enhances its tension and power." --Booklist (starred review)

"Harry is already every bit as volcanic as in his later cases. The big difference is Australia, which Nesb�, seeing it through the eyes of both a tourist and a cultural pathologist, makes you wonder how much different it is from Norway after all." --Kirkus Reviews

"This debut effort shows Nesb� as an already confident genre craftsman, striking sparks from the familiar genre material of Harry's fish-out-of-water experience in a foreign land and odd-couple pairing with a mismatched partner." --Publishers Weekly

Advance praise from the U.K.

"Even with this first book Nesb�'s command of the idiom is completely in place--there is absolutely no sense that the writer was finding his feet and aficionados will be very pleased to slide this on to their bookshelves alongside the other Harry Hole novels." --The Daily Express

"It is fantastic to see a younger Harry, a more loquacious Harry. . . . [Nesb� is] a terrific writer who knows how to build a story, taking you slowly to the top of a rollercoaster before sending you hurtling towards a solution that you never see coming." --Scottish Express

"Nesb� is already taking on the clich�s, ruthlessly tearing them apart and coming up with new riffs. . . . Most satisfyingly, we can now see the organic shape that Nesb� always intended his work to take." --The Independent (London)