The Redeemer (novel)

The Redeemer is a novel by popular Norwegian crime-writer Jo Nesbø, part of his Harry Hole series.

The Redeemer begins by describing an incident which took place a number of years in the past, in 1991, at a youth camp run by the Norwegian Salvation Army. A young, 14-year-old girl – the daughter of a senior official in the Salvation Army – is raped in a public toilet on the site. Due to the Salvation Army's strict hierarchical setup, and also because revelation of the rape will severely damage the Salvation Army's reputation, she does not tell anyone about the ordeal. The name of the assailant is not given; the chapter includes mention of several young men who would play major roles in the later plot, and it could have been any of them.

Another aspect of the past, scattered in numerous flashbacks throughout the book, is vivid reminiscences of the 1991 Battle of Vukovar during the Breakup of Yugoslavia, and of the atrocities committed in its aftermath by the victorious Serb militias. Similar to the flashbacks to the Second World War in "The Redbreast", these are integral to the book's plot - having formed the character of a young Vukovar Croat fighter who received the nickname "Little Redeemer", who would later become a professional hitman, carrying out contract killings in various European cities.

The action moves to the present day (2003), and the Croat assassin – calling himself Stankic – arrives in Oslo and kills a Salvation Army officer during a Christmas street concert. The hitman has a facial anomaly known as hyperelasticity, wherein his facial muscles can be manipulated voluntarily to stop people from recognizing him. As such, despite the murder happening in a public place the Norwegian police get little useful information regarding the murderer. The reader already does know who pulled the trigger – however, the identity of the customer who paid for the killing and this customer's motives remain unknown, and are at the center of the mystery which must be unravelled.