The Bat (Harry Hole 1)

Travel Guide

You may now associate Jo Nesbo with his native Oslo and indeed there are official tours of the books which take place in his and Harry Hole’s native city.However the first of the series was set in Australia. On the case of an Norwegian girl, this is a thrilling insight into ‘Harry Hole the early years’ where there is a younger,and less damaged version of him than in later books.

It’s always amusing (well to us) that this could be translated as batman. And this is a new environment for the man particularly as it was the first one in the original series but was only translated quite late on after many of the others in English.

This is Australia where Harry Hole seems to be sick on a regular basis. Where his drinking is out of control.

“Harry woke with a splitting headache. The light hurt his eyes, and no sooner had he registered that he was lying under a blanket than he had to throw himself to the side. The vomit came in quick spurts and the contents of his stomach splashed on the stone floor. He fell back on the bench and felt the gall sting his nose as he asked himself the classic question: where on earth am I?”

Interesting that this is not the Harry Hole we all recognise as being in Australia he’s not the Nordic set hardman that we know from later books.