Name: Knife
Author: Jo Nesbo

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

A lot

A murder investigation in which the protagonist may be guilty; graphic violence and crime scenes

Language

Some

Strong language throughout; the darkness of the protagonist's psychology permeates the prose

Sexual Content

Barely any

References to a significant romantic relationship and its devastation

Substance Use

A lot

Hole's alcoholism reaches crisis point; extended scenes of drinking and self-destruction

Emotional Intensity

A lot

Extreme psychological weight: protagonist's grief, guilt, possible culpability, and self-destruction

What this book is about

The twelfth Harry Hole novel begins with one of the series' most disturbing premises: Hole wakes in the early hours covered in blood, with no memory of the preceding night, near the flat where his ex-lover Rakel lives. When Rakel is found murdered, Hole becomes both investigator and the primary suspect in his own mind. Nesbo pushes the series' psychological intensity to an extreme in this brutal, relentlessly dark entry. The exploration of grief, self-destruction, and the unreliable narrator makes Knife one of the most demanding but also most powerful entries in the series.