Not really wanted by the local police force in Sydney but one detective befriends him and sees him as the key to snapping open the case.

I was wondering whether sir was the right mode of address to a superior officer in this country, or whether it was a little too'. An old fashioned detective story about method and hunches; although Harry seems to have all of the ideas and many are wrong and not thought through but in applying himself he does solve the crime at great personal loss. It's release so far into the series may well have saved Jo Nesbo from sinking unseen beneath the waves before he had even had a chance to get going in Britain.

Picked up from the airport by Andrew Kensington Harry is thrust into Australian culture rather quickly. Thus, that’s what makes the latter half of The Bat so readable, even as it gets a little farfetched at times. A tall, broad man with a stomach designed to impress was standing by the window, behind an oak desk. Had the weather been a little worse the waves would definitely have carried her out, but instead she lay among the rocks until she was found.

However I have to say that's not the case here as such because I can see why this was not seen as a good bet.The mystery itself is pretty standard fare, a woman is killed, and slowly we discover she was the latest victim of a serial killer. He feigns surprise and answers that he’s from Queensland, causing Hole to splutter an embarrassed apology. Not knowing anything about the other books, which I hear are head and shoulders above this one, it read as rather a padded mystery with dipped into cliché. Along the way of working out Inger’s death is the work of a serial killer, Hole finds time to begin a new relationship with another Scandinavian ex-pat, Swedish barmaid Birgitta Enquist. Harry still doesn't have his act together by the end of the book, but he has managed to think out the solution, which is pretty amazing because he is drunk.