If you came to me with a proposed plot about a hijacking, I’d explain that storyline died with 9/11.
Surprisingly, this show is excellent.
Apple TV+’s latest offering is Idris Elba on a Plane.
He plays ordinary guy Sam Nelson – known for his business negotiating skills back on Earth – who finds himself trapped on a hijacked flight and forced into the role of reluctant hero. …
Only Elba could carry this perfect piece of summer insanity off. Even then, it requires every ounce of his physically and metaphorically massive presence to do so. …
Hijack unfolds perfectly. Suspense builds, is released, builds again, a little more tension, a little longer wait until the elastic snaps back each time. …
This Nesbø novel (2009) is a good example of why I don’t like the Harry Hole books.
Too complicated. Too dark. No characters to cheer for ➙ certainly not Harry.
There are better Jo Nesbø books, of course. Skip this one.
Following the traumatic Snowman case, former police inspector Harry Hole has exiled himself in Hong Kong.
Kaja Solness, a new Norwegian Crime Squad officer, tracks down Hole and asks for his help investigating possible serial killings in Oslo.
Hole is convinced to return when told that his father, Olav, is seriously ill and will not live much longer.
He returns to Norway to find that the Crime Squad is in the middle of a power struggle with Kripos and its power-hungry head, Mikael Bellman, who seeks to put his agency in sole charge of the country’s murder cases.
Hole finds himself the target of Bellman’s hostility, though Bellman is keen to take credit for the results of Hole’s work. …
Both are a little bored. COVID-19 is a threat but lockdown has ended, probably in 2022.
Cafferty wants Rebus to find a man. Surprisingly, Rebus agrees.
Rebus ends up on trial for a crime. Did he do it?
Rebus both fears exposure of past misdeeds and examines his own motives at the time, trying to ascertain whether, in breaking the rules, he also crossed the moral lines he had drawn for himself. …
All the Rebus books are great. This one certainly as good as any.
In 2018, Lonely Planet named Oslo one of the ten best cities in the world to visit, citing the Norwegian capital’s “innovative architecture and unmissable museums alongside cool bars, bistros and cafés“.
I learned about Gerd Vold Hurum, the secret 7th member of the Kon-Tiki expedition. She was key in organizing the expedition on shore. But never got famous. After all, Gerd was only a woman. 😕
Norwegians were the most successful of the Arctic and Antarctic explorers, I’d say, because they were smart enough to learn from native peoples. And understood the importance of dogs in crossing snow and ice.
Roald Amundsen’s team was the first to reach the South Pole on December 14th, 1911; five weeks later the polar party led by Robert Falcon Scott was second.
Amundson was a dedicated explorer. Life long. Arrogant and competitive.
Despite his hard man exterior, those who knew him well found a humorous, self-deprecating storyteller.
The word quisling has come to mean a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor.
I was surprised to learn his wife Maria lived in Oslo until her death in 1980. Never charged with any crime, despite the fact that she spent a lot of money supporting their opulent life style.
His team was woefully inexperienced and under-prepared. Heyerdahl himself couldn’t swim and was afraid of water.
He was hardly a candidate to join the ranks of the great Norwegian sailors. 😀
Yet he did.
The trip began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 6,900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.
Without question, Thor was stubborn and brave. An adventure badass.
Nola is a mystery Nola is trouble. And Nola is supposed to be dead.
Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she’s dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim “Zig” Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.
Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig’s daughter and someone who once saved his daughter’s life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he’s determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola’s past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes.
Nola is the US Army’s artist-in-residence-a painter and trained soldier who rushes into battle, making art from war’s aftermath and sharing observations about today’s wars that would otherwise go overlooked. On her last mission, Nola saw something nobody was supposed to see, earning her an enemy unlike any other, one who will do whatever it takes to keep Nola quiet.
Together, Nola and Zig will either reveal a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power or die trying to uncover the US Army’s most mysterious secret-a centuries-old conspiracy that traces back through history to the greatest escape artist of all: Harry Houdini.
And Svein Finne is back, perhaps Harry’s biggest nemesis.
Harry Hole started drinking again and was kicked out of his home by his wife Rakel.
… Everything changes when one morning he wakes up covered in blood without remembering what happened the previous evening and, a short time later, he discovers that a murder had taken place that night. …
This book is long and complex.
Important to the plot are favorite characters including Kaja Solness, Katrine Bratt, and Bjørn Holm.
And new likeable characters including Sung-Min Larsen, an ambitious one-time student of Harry’s who works for rival law enforcement agency Kripos, and who looks as if he has his eye on Harry’s job.
… Roar Bohr (great name), sharp-shooting ex-special forces in Afghanistan, with a rifle, post-traumatic stress disorder and a score to settle with the man who raped his little sister. …
Publishers Weekly criticized the novel for having an “enormous number of characters, backstories, subplots, and themes” but nonetheless praised its “well-orchestrated” ending.
Rick McCharles 