Harry Hole, the enfant terrible of the Oslo Crime Squad, is happy. Happily married to Rakel, reconciled with his stepson (who is following in his footsteps as a police cadet), and lecturing at the Police College, he has seemingly been able to put most of the demons of his past safely behind him – except for that one case.

Meanwhile, a murder involving bodily mutilation and the drinking of blood has been committed, and Detective Inspector Katrine Bratt, who is leading the investigative team from Crime Squad, also has to deal with a new trainee detective, her ex-lover from Forensics and another team member who is patently useless and only on the team because he has dirt on the head of Crime Squad; it’s all one big happy family.

A second murder occurs and it looks like the team has a serial killer on its hands – a very clever serial killer. Police Chief Mikael Bellman is worried that more murders or a long, drawn-out case could harm his chances of becoming the next justice minister. To hedge his bets, Bellman blackmails Harry Hole into rejoining Crime Squad with a brief to form a small task force, which will work in parallel with, and share information with, Katrine Bratt’s team, so that the murders can be solved.

As the police chase down the leads and the vampiric killer reveals more about themselves, Harry becomes convinced that this is the same killer who once got away from him and, having been dormant for the past few years, has now resurfaced with a new modus operandi. The killer is teasing Harry, wanting him to ‘come out and play’. A dangerous game is now under way that will have unexpected repercussions for those close to Harry.

This is another tense nail-biter from Jo Nesbo in which Harry is slightly more reflective. Nesbo throws a huge curveball into the mix about two-thirds of the way through and obscures the trail with some misdirection at the same time. This is quite unsettling, but it spices up the rest of this excellent crime thriller.

Reviewed by Brooke Walker