Buy The Leopard - A Harry Hole Novel Here
Synopsis
Following the events of the previous novel, Detective Harry Hole has gone on leave of absence and has disappeared. He is found by a new Crime Squad officer, Kaja Sollness, in Hong Kong, where he has become addicted to opium.
After failing to convince Harry to return to Norway by describing the identical murder of two women, Sollness informs him that his father is seriously ill in hospital and will not live much longer. This convinces Harry to return to Norway with Kaja Sollness.
Harry returns to Crime Squad to find that it is in a tussle with the Norwegian Police Department, Kripos. The head of Kripos, Mikael Bellman, and Harry's own supervisor are at odds regarding the murders. Harry himself claims to have no interest in the murder cases, but when a female Norwegian MP is murdered in a public park, he is drawn into the case.
The third murder initially seems unrelated to the previous two. The previous victims had been found with 24 small incisions emanating from the mouth, but the actual cause of death was by drowning in their own blood from those wounds, whereas the MP was found having been hanged, though the fall had been considerable and she had been decapitated by the rope.
Harry, Sollness and one of Harry's former colleagues at Crime Squad work under cover to try and find the killer. They discover that all three women were at the same ski lodge some time previously all on the same night and Harry deduces that the murders are part of the killer's attempts to cover up his (or her) trail. Suspicion falls on a man known to have been at the ski lodge at the time, but he is eliminated from the enquiry when he also is found murdered having been super glued to his bath and then slowly drowned, returning to the killer's previous style of murder.
Harry finds another person who had been at the ski lodge at the time who is now in Australia. She refuses to be bait for the killer, but Harry - who has begun working for Kripos - and Sollness (who Harry has recently discovered has been feeding information to her married lover, Mikael Bellman) instigate a sting operation to draw out the killer - which fails and almost costs them their lives when they are trapped by an avalanche which was started deliberately.
Harry finally determines that the murderer is someone that he knows and who has become close to him, following a discussion with The Snowman from his previous case. He realises who he believes to be responsible and has him arrested.
Unfortunately, Harry's instincts have proved wrong and the real killer is discovered to have fled to the Congo. Harry and Sollness follow them and Harry is kidnapped by associates of the killer. He manages to escape, but Sollness has been captured herself. Harry follows the clues given by one of the killer's associates and finally confronts and kills the murderer at the lip of a live volcano.
Despite having become lovers during the investigation, Harry cannot commit himself to a life with Kaja Sollness. Following the death of his father, Harry spots his former partner, Rakel, and her son, Oleg, at the funeral and manages to confirm that they are alive and happy away from Norway - having fled following the events of The Snowman murders. Harry himself returns to see The Snowman, who is gravely ill and it is tacitly suggested that he helps The Snowman to commit suicide, which Harry feels is payment for having failed to follow his father's previous request for him to perform euthanasia. At the end of the novel, Harry returns to Hong Kong.
Buy The Leopard - A Harry Hole Novel Here