The Devil's Star

Jo Nesbø's The Devil's Star, set during a sweltering Oslo summer, opens with water leaking through the ceiling of a century-old apartment building in Ullevålsveien. Vibeke Knutsen, a former cook, recognizes that lumps coagulating in her boiling pan are blood dripping from the flat above. Police are called, and the body of Camilla Loen is found shot in her bathroom, one index finger severed and a tiny red diamond cut in the shape of a five-pointed star lodged under her eyelid.

Chief Inspector Bjarne Møller, head of Crime Squad at Oslo Police Headquarters, assembles a skeleton team: Beate Lønn, a forensics specialist with an extraordinary ability to remember faces; Inspector Tom Waaler, one of the department's most respected detectives; and Harry Hole, the department's other top investigator, who has spent four weeks on an alcohol binge that Møller has covered up by listing him as on leave. Harry examines the crime scene, deduces the shot was fired at close range by someone taller than the victim, and determines the finger was cut off while Camilla was still alive. He then refuses to work the case because of Waaler's involvement.

Harry's hostility stems from a failed investigation. Three years earlier, his closest friend and colleague, Ellen Gjelten, was murdered near the River Akerselva. The killing was officially attributed to a neo-Nazi named Sverre Olsen, who was shot dead by Waaler during arrest. Harry became convinced that Waaler, operating under the codename "Prince," ran an arms-smuggling network and ordered Ellen's death because she uncovered his identity. Harry found a witness, but the witness recanted. The head of Kripos, Norway's national criminal investigation service, shut Harry down, threatening dismissal. Harry responded by drinking himself into oblivion, destroying his relationship with Rakel, a woman he loves, and her young son Oleg.

Møller visits Harry's flat with dismissal papers awaiting only the vacationing Chief Superintendent's signature, giving Harry a few weeks to work. A new case arrives: Wilhelm Barli, a flamboyant theatrical producer, reports his wife Lisbeth missing. Lisbeth, a singer cast as the lead in Wilhelm's production of My Fair Lady at the National Theatre, left their flat to buy potato salad and never returned. Days later, a severed middle finger wearing a ring with an identical red diamond star arrives by mail. Beate identifies the finger as Lisbeth's.

A third victim, Barbara Svendsen, a receptionist at a solicitors' firm, is found shot in the office lavatory with her ring finger severed and a red diamond star hidden in an earring. A visitor mentions seeing a bike courier leave just before the body was found. Harry realizes the courier disguise, complete with helmet, sunglasses, and cloth over the mouth, is the killer's method of entering buildings undetected.

Meanwhile, Waaler privately offers Harry a place in his criminal network, framing his smuggling as a necessary form of justice. Harry does not refuse outright. Psychologist Ståle Aune, the Crime Squad's consultant, warns the team that the killer appears to be a sociopath. After a night of intense concentration aided by sleeping pills, Harry cracks a numerical code: The number five connects the five-pointed diamond, five fingers, five days between murders, the approximate time of five o'clock, and the fifth-floor locations. Drawing a pentagram, a five-pointed star symbol with deep occult associations, on a map of Oslo, Harry finds the three crime scenes fall on three of its points. The remaining two indicate future targets: a student building in Kampen and Villa Valle, an isolated house occupied by Olaug Sivertsen, Sven Sivertsen's elderly mother.

A surveillance operation is mounted at the student building, outfitted with cameras by Otto Tangen, an eccentric surveillance specialist working from a converted bus. Beate, stationed with Olaug at Villa Valle, learns that Olaug's son, Sven Sivertsen, lives in Prague, visits Oslo every five days, and recently gave his mother a brooch with a red diamond star identical to those found on the victims. Waaler races to Villa Valle and arrests Sven, though Beate notices he acted as if Sven were armed when Sven clearly was not.

At the student building, Harry discovers a pentagram carved above the door of room 406. Inside he finds a severed, embalmed thumb, and in the loft, the body of the room's occupant, Marius Veland, a student, sealed in an airtight bag, dead for 20 days, making Marius the actual first victim. Waaler then assigns Harry a "loyalty test": kill Sven in his detention cell using a poison called "Joseph's Blessing" to prevent him from exposing Waaler's network. Instead, Harry bluffs Sven into believing he has been poisoned, secures his cooperation as a witness against Waaler, and smuggles him out of custody.

Hiding with Sven in room 406, Harry learns that Sven was hired anonymously to deliver diamonds and Czech pistols to a litter bin in Frogner Park, unknowingly supplying the actual killer. Sven's girlfriend, Eva Marvanova, photographed Sven meeting Waaler at a café in Prague's Václav Square. When Eva emails the photo, Harry recognizes the square as the same location visible in a honeymoon photograph of Wilhelm and Lisbeth Barli. This triggers his realization: Wilhelm discovered Lisbeth's affair with Sven during their honeymoon and orchestrated the serial killings as revenge, framing Sven while murdering Lisbeth. Forensic analysis of fennel seeds found under Lisbeth's fingernail confirms that Wilhelm was in physical contact with Lisbeth after he reported her missing.

Harry confronts Wilhelm in his flat, having climbed across the rooftops in a rainstorm. Wilhelm freely confesses: He found love letters revealing the affair, traveled to Prague to identify Sven, then designed the pentagram on a map of Oslo using his own address and Olaug's house as two fixed points, constructing the other murder locations geometrically. He killed Marius Veland first, then Camilla Loen and Barbara Svendsen as "scenery" to simulate a serial killer, and finally shot Lisbeth, sealing her body inside the waterbed. Wilhelm reveals that the woman in his shower is Toya Harang, Lisbeth's sister, whom he lured to the flat. Harry finds Toya dead, strangled. Wilhelm slips outside and hangs himself in the yard.

Harry then discovers a voicemail from Waaler, who is standing over sleeping Oleg in Rakel's house, demanding Harry bring Sven to the student building or the boy dies. Harry races there, hiding a gun inside the lift door handle. Waaler arrives with Oleg, finds and discards the weapon, but Harry has arranged a second contingency: Tangen's surveillance cameras are still recording, meaning Waaler's actions are being filmed. In the ensuing confrontation, Harry stabs Waaler in the collarbone with a chisel, paralyzing his gun arm. When Waaler retrieves the gun and grabs Oleg through the lift's iron grille, Harry snaps a handcuff onto Waaler's wrist and presses the basement button. The descending lift traps Waaler's arm between the grille and the door frame, killing him.

In the aftermath, Sven is placed in protective custody. The head of Kripos apologizes to Harry and offers his job back while probing how Harry will present the case, hinting at concern over exposure of corruption within the force. Harry gives a guarded answer. He tells Rakel he has quit the police and accepted a job as a taxi driver. She asks him to come by in the morning with no plans, and he agrees. As dawn approaches, Harry sits alone in his flat, tasting plaster dust on his fingers from the chisel he carried from Wilhelm's flat, where the devil's star was carved into the wall. Its metallic, egg-like flavor echoes the blood-mixed plaster described in the novel's opening, connecting the story's end to its beginning.