Not nearly as good as the first Harry Hole book. In this one, the Norwegian police detective is sent abroad again, even though he's been drinking too much and really shouldn't be sent anywhere. It turns out there are more Norwegians in Thailand than I would have imagined, and one of them -- the ambassador to Thailand -- has been murdered. The case is really convoluted, and in the end, I felt there were too many holes in the story (no spoilers). It just didn't come together well.

The amusing or clever parts that made [b:The Bat|17345209|The Bat (Harry Hole, #1)|Jo Nesbø|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364767794s/17345209.jpg|1994708] fun to read were few and far between in this book. There were a few good moments, especially when the Thai police detectives were involved. A scene when one of them is picking a lock really hit the mark perfectly.

Overall, there was too much gritty, ugly stuff (pedophiles, child porn, the drunken wife of the dead ambassador, and more murders) with unnecessarily graphic description. The seamy underbelly of Bangkok comes across -- especially those pathetic bars where extremely young women are working very hard to pick up fat old Western men -- but the balance is off. The heat, the traffic, the feel of the city before the elevated train was completed -- all good, very realistic, but not enough to make up for all the flaws.