(JP/Andreas D. Arditya)

Two years ago, Europe’s leading crime and thriller novelist, Jo Nesbø, released Phantom, his ninth installment of the smash detective series set in Oslo. The series’ number 10, The Police, is ready to hit the shelves in June.

The Harry Hole series tells the rollercoaster life of a tough detective who struggles with his own demons while working on solving crimes on the streets of Oslo.

Harry’s adventures have earned Nesbø accolades in Europe, including the Glass Key award for Best Nordic Crime Novel of the Year in 1998. In other parts of the world, his books have stayed on the best seller shelf over the past few years.

Nesbø said that, initially, he struggled in dealing with Harry, but gradually found a place in his heart for the character.

“He’s the kind of guy for whom I need to provide extra time and I did get tired of dealing with him. After writing on him, I found myself trying to get away from him: writing a children’s book, doing other things.

“But after a while, I went back to writing about Harry. He’s the one guy I always return to. I am now on good terms with him,” Nesbø told The Jakarta Post during his first visit to Indonesia late in January.

Since his first story was told in 1997, Harry has been shot, stabbed and, needless to say, beaten up countless times. He has numerous scars, including a titanium finger and a slash from mouth to ear. At the end of Phantom, Harry was left for dead in a sewer with bullet wounds and rats closing in around him.

Is Harry close to his end?

“Yes, we are closer to the end. How much closer? I won’t tell you. That’s a secret. I can tell you but then I’d have to kill you,” the 52-year-old told the Post with a smile.

Nesbø grew up in a home with lots of books in Molde, a town on the northern coast of Norway. His mother was a librarian and his father an avid reader.

“One day when I was 6 or 7, my dad read me Lord of the Flies. After he finished, I told him I wasn’t impressed by it and that I could write a better book,” the blue-eyed blond said.

His writing career, as it turned out, was delayed for decades.

“At the age of 17, I was sure I was going to be a professional soccer player. That was my Plan A, but then I broke two ligaments.” The injury ended his soccer dream after playing for top Norwegian side Molde FK.

“I didn’t have a Plan B so like anybody not having another plan, I went to study business.”  Nesbø studied at the Norwegian School of Economics and worked as a stockbroker after graduating.

“My brother and I had started a band. Our first album was nothing special, but when we released the second one we suddenly became the best-selling band in Norway.”

Nesbø recalled that as the band grew increasingly popular, he became more frustrated with his stockbroker day job. “I promised my mother I wouldn’t quit the job.”

He said he eventually became exhausted and decided to withdraw from both music and the stockbroking world.

“I went to Australia and bought a laptop and started writing a crime novel.”

Nesbø said he chose the crime genre because it was the easiest thing to write. “With crime stories, you know the head and the tail; it has a clear-cut start and ending.

“The plan was to try myself out with writing a crime novel before going on to more serious stuff, real novels.”

He was surprised when his first try at novel writing was approved and published. “I told them they must be crazy and asked for the draft back because I wanted to rewrite it before they published it.”

Flaggermusmannen (The Bat Man) – the first in Harry’s series — won the 1997 Riverton Prize, Norway’s most prestigious crime-writing award, and the Glass Key award.

After his first novel, Nesbø also wrote a children’s book, plays and short stories. The children’s book was started as short stories that his daughter demanded he tell her. “She and her friends would demand that I tell them stories, and ones that had to interest them within minutes. They were a very tough audience,” he reminiscent.

Besides visiting Jakarta, Nesbø also visited Kalimantan. “I have wanted to see this part of the world for a long time, and now I have the time. I am going on a boat trip up river in Palangkaraya.”

The trip is not planned as part of his research for the Harry stories. “But it could be; there’s a possibility that Harry’s will go to Indonesia.”

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