Oslo's Summer of Shadows

Oslo bakes under a rare, relentless heatwave, its streets emptied by summer holidays. But beneath the surface, darkness seeps in. A young woman, Camilla Loen, is found murdered in her attic flat, her body staged with a ritualistic precision: a finger severed, a red diamond star hidden under her eyelid. The city's Crime Squad is depleted, and the case falls to the troubled, alcoholic detective Harry Hole, who is barely clinging to his job and his sanity. As the city sweats, so too do its secrets, and the first hints of a serial killer's pattern begin to emerge.

Harry Hole's Descent

Harry Hole, once a star investigator, is now a pariah within the force, haunted by the unsolved murder of his partner Ellen and his own self-destructive tendencies. His relationship with Rakel is in ruins, his drinking out of control, and his career on the brink. When assigned to the new murder, Harry is forced to work alongside his nemesis, the ambitious and enigmatic Tom Waaler, whom he suspects of deep corruption and even murder. The case becomes both a lifeline and a noose, pulling Harry deeper into obsession and paranoia.

The First Star Appears

The investigation into Camilla's death reveals chilling details: her finger was removed while she was still alive, and a rare, star-shaped red diamond was placed under her eyelid. Soon, another woman, Lisbeth Barli, vanishes, and her severed finger—adorned with a similar diamond ring—arrives in the mail. The killer's signature is clear: mutilation, diamonds, and a fixation on the number five. The city's fear grows as the press dubs the murderer "The Courier Killer," and Harry senses a pattern that eludes everyone else.

Rituals and Red Diamonds

Each crime scene is marked by a pentagram—carved, drawn, or implied—and the killer's ritualistic staging grows more elaborate. The diamonds are traced to blood-soaked origins in Sierra Leone, smuggled through Eastern Europe. The victims seem unconnected, but all are women, and all are killed on the fifth floor, at five-day intervals, around five o'clock. The investigation is stymied by red herrings, internal politics, and Harry's own deteriorating state. Yet, the killer's code—rooted in numerology, occult symbols, and personal vengeance—begins to take shape.

The Reluctant Detective Returns

Despite being suspended and nearly dismissed, Harry is pulled back into the case as the murders escalate. His unique intuition and experience with serial killers make him indispensable, even as his colleagues doubt his stability. He forms a fragile alliance with Beate Lønn, a forensic expert with a photographic memory for faces, and together they begin to unravel the killer's methods. Harry's personal demons—his guilt, grief, and suspicion of Waaler—fuel his relentless pursuit, even as they threaten to destroy him.

The Pentagram Pattern

Harry cracks the killer's code: the murders form the points of a pentagram on a map of Oslo, with each tip marking a crime scene. The pattern predicts two more killings, and the team races to prevent them. Surveillance is set up at the next likely location, but the killer slips through, leaving another body and another severed finger. The investigation becomes a desperate chess match, with Harry trying to anticipate the killer's moves while battling the machinations of Waaler, who is both a rival and a threat.

A Killer's Code

The significance of the number five becomes undeniable: five victims, five days apart, five o'clock, five-pointed stars, five floors. The killer is sending a message, taunting the police with his precision. Harry realizes that the victims are not chosen for who they are, but for where they are—random women sacrificed to complete the pentagram. The code is both a smokescreen and a confession, and Harry's insight brings him closer to the truth, but also into the killer's crosshairs.

The Courier in Disguise

Witnesses recall seeing a bike courier—masked, anonymous—at each crime scene. The killer's disguise allows him to move freely, delivering death as if it were a package. The police chase false leads, including a smuggler named Sven Sivertsen, whose connections to the diamonds and weapons make him a prime suspect. But Harry senses that the real killer is someone else, someone hiding in plain sight, orchestrating the murders with theatrical flair.

Five is the Human Number

The investigation's profiler, Aune, explains the psychological underpinnings of serial killers, distinguishing between psychopaths and sociopaths, and highlighting the ritualistic need for control and meaning. The pentagram, the number five, and the killer's meticulous planning point to a mind obsessed with order, revenge, and symbolism. Harry's own struggles mirror the killer's descent: both are haunted by loss, both seek redemption, and both are driven by forces they barely understand.

The Wrong Suspect

Sven Sivertsen is arrested, his suitcase full of diamonds and guns, but Harry is unconvinced. The evidence is too perfect, the pattern too neat. Sivertsen's story reveals he was manipulated into smuggling the murder weapons and diamonds, but he is not the killer. The true murderer has staged the crimes to frame Sivertsen, using him as a pawn in a larger game. Harry's realization comes too late to prevent another death, and the investigation is thrown into chaos.

The Puppetmaster Revealed

Harry's breakthrough comes when he connects the theatrical staging of the murders to Wilhelm Barli, a renowned producer and husband of one of the victims. Barli's jealousy and need for revenge against his wife's lover, Sivertsen, drive him to orchestrate the killings as a grand performance, each murder a scene in his tragic play. The pentagram, the diamonds, the severed fingers—all are props in Barli's masterpiece of vengeance. Harry confronts Barli in a rain-soaked climax, uncovering the final body and forcing a confession.

Rain, Reckoning, and Release

As the long-awaited rain finally falls on Oslo, washing away the oppressive heat and the city's sins, Harry faces his own reckoning. He saves a child from Waaler's clutches, exposes the corrupt inspector's crimes, and brings Barli to justice. The case's resolution is bittersweet: innocence is lost, wounds remain, and Harry's future is uncertain. Yet, the storm's cleansing power offers a glimmer of hope—a chance for renewal, forgiveness, and perhaps even love.

The Devil's Star Falls

In the aftermath, Harry is offered his job back, but he hesitates, scarred by the violence and betrayal he has witnessed. The police force is shaken by revelations of corruption, and the city mourns its dead. Harry's relationship with Rakel is left unresolved, poised between hope and heartbreak. The pentagram's shadow lingers, a reminder that evil can be both random and deeply personal. As Oslo dries beneath a new sun, Harry sits alone, contemplating the cost of justice and the price of truth.

Characters

Harry Hole

Harry is the novel's protagonist, a detective whose genius for solving crimes is matched only by his capacity for self-destruction. Haunted by the murder of his partner Ellen and his own failures, Harry is an outsider within the police force, mistrusted by colleagues and tormented by addiction. His relationships—with Rakel, with his colleagues, with his own conscience—are fraught with tension and regret. Harry's psychological complexity is the engine of the novel: his empathy allows him to understand killers, but his obsessions threaten to consume him. Over the course of the story, Harry moves from despair to a hard-won, ambiguous redemption, proving both his value and his vulnerability.

Tom Waaler

Waaler is Harry's nemesis within the police, a detective inspector whose outward competence and charm mask a deep vein of corruption and violence. Ambitious and manipulative, Waaler is suspected by Harry of being both a murderer and the mastermind behind an arms smuggling ring. Waaler's psychological profile is that of a sociopath: he is capable of calculated cruelty, but also craves recognition and control. His relationship with Harry is a deadly dance of suspicion, rivalry, and mutual understanding, culminating in a final confrontation that exposes both men's true natures.

Wilhelm Barli

Barli is the hidden architect of the murders, a theater producer whose jealousy and sense of betrayal drive him to orchestrate a series of ritual killings. His wife's affair with Sivertsen shatters his world, and he channels his pain into a meticulously staged campaign of revenge. Barli's psychological makeup is that of a narcissist and a control freak, obsessed with symbolism, ritual, and the power of narrative. He manipulates others as if they were actors in his play, and his ultimate confession is both a performance and a plea for understanding.

Beate Lønn

Beate is a forensic expert with an extraordinary memory for faces, whose analytical skills and emotional intelligence make her an invaluable ally to Harry. She is methodical, observant, and quietly courageous, often providing the key insights that move the investigation forward. Beate's own vulnerabilities—her shyness, her struggles with authority, her past trauma—add depth to her character and create a bond with Harry based on mutual respect and trust.

Rakel Fauke

Rakel is Harry's former lover, a woman whose strength, independence, and compassion offer him a glimpse of redemption. Their relationship is marked by longing, misunderstanding, and the ever-present threat of Harry's self-sabotage. Rakel's role is both personal and symbolic: she represents the life Harry could have if he could conquer his demons, but also the pain of what he stands to lose.

Sven Sivertsen

Sivertsen is a diamond and arms smuggler whose past and present are manipulated by Barli to serve as the perfect scapegoat. He is both guilty (of smuggling) and innocent (of murder), and his desperation, cynicism, and eventual cooperation with Harry reveal a man caught in forces beyond his control. His relationship with his mother and his pregnant girlfriend add layers of vulnerability and humanity to his character.

Bjarne Møller

Møller is Harry's superior, a man torn between loyalty to his troubled detective and the demands of a bureaucratic, politicized police force. He is pragmatic, compassionate, and often the only authority figure willing to give Harry another chance. Møller's own struggles—with illness, with institutional inertia, with the limits of justice—mirror the novel's larger themes of compromise and integrity.

Beate's Mother

Though not a central figure, Beate's mother represents the stability and generational continuity that many characters lack. Her relationship with Beate is understated but significant, providing a counterpoint to the fractured families and lost connections elsewhere in the novel.

Oleg

Oleg is Rakel's son and a surrogate son to Harry, whose safety becomes a crucial stake in the novel's climax. His vulnerability and trust highlight both Harry's capacity for love and the dangers posed by the adult world's violence and duplicity.

Olaug Sivertsen

Olaug is Sven's mother, an elderly woman whose isolation and longing for connection make her both a potential victim and a symbol of the collateral damage wrought by the killer's schemes. Her presence grounds the novel's more sensational elements in everyday human need and loss.

Plot Devices

Ritualistic Symbolism and Numerology

The novel's central plot device is the killer's use of ritual, symbolism, and numerology—especially the number five and the pentagram—to structure the murders. This device serves multiple purposes: it creates a puzzle for the detectives (and readers) to solve, it reflects the killer's psychological need for order and meaning, and it misleads both the police and the public into seeing the crimes as the work of a classic serial killer. The pentagram's points, the timing of the murders, and the placement of diamonds all function as both clues and red herrings, driving the narrative's suspense and thematic resonance.

Unreliable Narration and Misdirection

Nesbø employs misdirection throughout the novel, framing Sivertsen as the likely killer through circumstantial evidence, only to reveal the true mastermind in a late twist. The use of multiple suspects, red herrings, and shifting points of view keeps both characters and readers off-balance, mirroring the uncertainty and paranoia that pervade the police force and Harry's own mind.

Psychological Parallelism

The novel draws explicit parallels between Harry and the killer, exploring themes of obsession, loss, and the search for meaning. Both are haunted by betrayal and driven by forces they struggle to control. This psychological mirroring deepens the narrative, transforming the investigation into a journey of self-discovery and confrontation with the darkness within.

Institutional Corruption and Conspiracy

The subplot involving Tom Waaler's corruption and the arms smuggling ring adds a layer of institutional intrigue, complicating the murder investigation and raising the stakes for Harry. The threat is not only from the killer, but from within the police itself, forcing Harry to navigate a web of alliances, betrayals, and moral ambiguity.

Foreshadowing and Recurring Motifs

Motifs of water (rain, showers, drowning), dreams and nightmares, and the devil's star recur throughout the novel, foreshadowing key events and reinforcing the atmosphere of unease. These motifs serve as both literal and symbolic elements, linking characters' inner lives to the external mysteries they face.

Analysis

The Devil's Star is more than a procedural thriller; it is a meditation on the nature of evil, the human need for meaning, and the possibility of redemption. Through its intricate plotting and psychological depth, the novel explores how trauma, jealousy, and the hunger for control can warp both individuals and institutions. Harry Hole's journey is emblematic of the struggle to confront one's own darkness without succumbing to it, and the story's resolution is both cathartic and ambiguous. Nesbø's use of ritual and symbolism elevates the narrative, inviting readers to consider the ways in which we construct stories—about ourselves, about others, about justice—to make sense of chaos. Ultimately, the novel suggests that while evil may be random and senseless, the pursuit of truth, however flawed, is what gives life its meaning.

Last updated: May 18, 2025