Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A murderer who drinks victims' blood after rending them with iron teeth is slaughtering women in Oslo. Legendary homicide inspector Harry Hole, now a comfy private citizen and police college lecturer, is persuaded to help apprehend this fiend. Acting as a shadow detective with his own handpicked investigative team, Harry detects signatures in the vampirist's modus operandi pointing to the only killer who ever evaded him: Valentin Gjertsen. Although peopled with familiar series characters, this latest Harry Hole thriller recaps enough background to stand alone. The commanding diction of British actor John Lee propels the listener at a pace that unfurls Nesbo's cinematographic prose into the theater of the mind. When Lee channels a villain, listeners are tempted to check under the bed. -VERDICT Nesbo's mastery of plot and suspense will leave fans and police procedural/thriller aficionados more than satisfied. ["Features thoroughly developed characters, an intricate plot, and suspenseful twists, all hallmarks of a master storyteller": LJ 5/1/17 starred review of the Knopf hc.]-Judith -Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Retired Inspector Harry Hole, who thinks he's safe from his demons as an underpaid lecturer in Oslo's Police College, gets blackmailed into returning to the Crime Squad Unit, with predictably explosive results.Do vampires exist? Maybe not, but vampirists, in academic expert Hallstein Smith's suitably pedantic distinction, certainly do, and one of them is at work in Oslo. After meeting Elise Hermansen, an attorney specializing in rape cases, on Tinder, he's evidently bitten her to death with a formidable set of iron teeth and drunk her blood. Given the remarkable absence of useful forensic evidence and the tenuous connection between the killer and his victim, one-eyed Police Chief Mikael Bellman, eager to burnish his crime-fighting credentials in support of his nomination as Minister of Justice, wants Harry Hole (Police, 2013, etc.) on the case, and he's willing to threaten legal proceedings against Police College student Oleg Fauke, who just happens to be Harry's stepson, to make it happen. Meanwhile, the killer has not been idle. Instead of letting a discreet interval elapse between his outrages, he attacks a second victim, concocts a smoothie from her blood and some lemon, and leaves a signature V on her door. More victims will follow in short order, and the case will continue to grow darker and more complex, even after Harry focuses the Crime Squad's manhunt on Valentin Gjertsen, who escaped from Ila Prison four years ago. In fact, Nesb, borrowing a page from Jeffery Deaver, piles on so many twists within twists within twists that even the most conscientious readers may end up puzzled about every circumstance of the killings except the pervasive and powerfully evoked evil behind them. Middling for this distinguished series: yet more evidence of why Scandinavian crime writers continue to dominate international bestseller lists. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Actor Lee delivers an excellent, nuanced performance in this audio edition of the latest installment of Nesbo's Harry Hole series. As the book opens, former detective Hole is an instructor at a police college in Oslo, but he's quickly drawn in to the hunt for a serial killer who may be a figure from his past. In this, Hole's 11th outing, Nesbo again keeps the prose lean and the pace taut. Lee gives a distinctive voice and accent to each of the novel's many characters, yet even while successfully differentiating this large ensemble, he manages to conceal the identity of a villain whose voice is heard midway through the novel. And when that same villain's nose is broken later in the book, he skillfully adds a subtle but discernible nasal twinge. As Hole and his ragtag team of investigators close in on their target, the veteran voice actor ratchets up the tension. Lee's suave English brogue is a perfect match for the gritty material and the many Briticisms of the translation. A Knopf hardcover. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Somehow it had to happen: Harry Hole up against a vampire. Don't panic. Nesbø's internationally best-selling crime-fiction series, while often intensely horrific, has always remained unfailingly realistic, and so it is here, in this eleventh installment. Not a genre mash-up, then, but a gripping, way-scary crime novel in which former Oslo police detective Hole, now teaching at Norway's police college, is called back to active duty to track down a vampirist, that is, a person who craves blood and exhibits behavior similar to that expected of a vampire. Harry has battled some cunningly evil serial killers in the past, but this is the first to employ a specially designed set of black dentures that make it possible to kill with a perfectly placed vampiric bite. Different, yes, but there's something about this killer, who targets victims on Tinder, that reminds Harry of his nemesis, the one who got away. Could it be? As in previous Hole novels, Nesbø moves his narration around a bit, putting us into the nightmarish mind of the killer without revealing his or her identity. And, of course, this being a novel about the most demon-wracked hero in crime fiction, Harry has troubles of his own, including a mysterious disease that has felled his wife, Rakel, and, yes, another tussle with Harry's longtime sparring partner, Jim Beam. In the end, it's all about thirst the vampirist's for blood, of course, but also Harry's for booze and for the thrill of the chase. Vampires don't exist, we all know that, but thirst is very real indeed, bringing together hunter and hunted. This one will keep readers awake deep into the night.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2017 Booklist

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Oslo detective Harry Hole has two loves: alcohol and murder. Both have been somewhat controlled since he was transferred to the faculty of the police college. When a young lawyer is killed in her locked apartment by someone wearing iron teeth that tore her throat open, the press and populace are horrified. The ambitious police chief, with political prospects, blackmails Harry into returning to the murder squad. Several more bloody homicides make it clear there is a vampirist at work, but Harry manages to identify and kill him two-thirds of the way through this tale. Unfortunately, it is clear someone had been aiding and controlling the killer and might just replace him with another to taunt Harry "to come out and play." Harry's demons drive his private and professional life, but his unorthodox methods do get results. This 11th entry (after Police) in Nesbo's Scandinoir series features thoroughly developed characters, an intricate plot, and suspenseful twists, all hallmarks of a master storyteller. VERDICT With the film adaptation of Nesbo's The Snowman, starring Michael Fassbender as the iconic Norwegian detective, scheduled for release this October, reader interest is bound to grow. [See Prepub -Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.