The Bat (novel)

The Bat (Norwegian: Flaggermusmannen, 1997) is a crime novel by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø, the first in the Harry Hole series.

Plot

The story revolves around the Norwegian police officer Harry Hole, who is sent to Sydney by the Royal Norwegian Police Directorate to serve as the Norwegian attaché for the Australian police's investigation into the murder of a young female Norwegian B-celebrity, Inger Holter, who was residing in Australia.

Initially trying to adapt to the great differences in time, temperatures, environment, and cultures of Oslo and Sydney, Harry is introduced to Andrew Kensington, an Australian Aborigine and homicide detective for the Sydney police, his nominal partner in the investigation. Hole is informed that Holter's body was found dashed on coastal rocks just under some cliffs north of the city, and that the police believe that she was raped before her death. However, her body was severely cut during her fall from the cliffs, and any DNA remains from the assailant that would previously have been present are now washed away.

At first, her boyfriend, Evans White is approached as a suspect. Andrew informs Harry that Evans immigrated to Australia with his divorced mother in the 1970s and eventually became a local drug lord in the town of Nimbin. Through their insertion into the drug world in Nimbin and their meeting with reluctant White, Harry grows confident that White is responsible for Holter's death.

Harry and Andrew visit the Albury Hotel in Oxford Street, the Sydney pub where Inger Holter worked as a bartender. While there, Harry meets the witness Birgitta Enquist – a Swede – and unprofessionally but successfully asks her on a date. They soon embark on a deeply emotional relationship, and Harry tells Birgitta his deepest secret - he is an alcoholic, which caused an accident when he was chasing a criminal in Oslo, causing the death of a colleague and leaving a bypassing young man paralyzed for life. Afterwards, the guilt-ridden Harry had decided to stop drinking.

Andrew takes Harry to a local boxing tournament in a small town, organized by the Jim Chivers boxing team. After the match Harry is introduced to the Aborigine boxer Robin Toowoomba, the match champion and the protege of Andrew, who had also been a boxer before becoming a policeman.

Harry's investigation under chief inspector Larry Wadkins, a keen, but arrogant man, turns to data analysis of rape victim records in New South Wales, specifically with respect to white, blond-haired strangulation victims. No culprit is identified, however, the team discovers a string of rape cases fitting those parameters which leads back years.

In the process of attempting to interview a drug lord in Sydney, Harry ends up in a visceral fight. Andrew comes to his rescue, but receives a bad concussion in the brawl and is consequently hospitalized. Harry's growing suspicion that it is Otto Rechtnagel, a homosexual clown who frequented the Albury and knew Inger well, was responsible for her death - based on his circus's appearance near every location and time of the death of all of the blonde rape cases over the past years.

Knowing that Andrew knew Rechtnagel well, Harry confronts Andrew with this information at the hospital, hoping to drag something out of him that might be useful for the impending police raid on the circus event, to capture the clown. Andrew desperately attempts to dissuade Harry from taking Rechtnagel, suggesting it is a matter of life or death.

Just as Rechtnagel's act ends and he leaves the stage, Harry and his associates search the backstage, but cannot find the man. They search everywhere until they find his dismembered body in the steaming shower room. With Rechtnagel's death, Harry works under the assumption that his killer was associated with the rape cases but that the clown could still have been the serial rapist/killer and that his alleged homosexuality was only a cover for his true hetero/bisexual tendencies.

The day after the murder, Harry and another associate, Sergei Lebie, discover Andrew's body hanging from the electrical cord of a ceiling light in Rechtnagel's apartment. Harry also discovers a small stash of used and unused syringes for heroin injection in the apartment, but conceals this from Lebie. With this discovery, Harry interviews one of the pushers again, finding out that Andrew was one of his clients, but that he had established a respectable reputation for buying small doses at a constant rate and for always being able to pay. Andrew turns out to have been one of the rare cases of a heroin addict able to keep his addiction under control and maintain a normal life, his addiction unsuspected by his police colleagues.

Harry interviews a prostitute – whose pimp Andrew introduced him to – back at his hotel room under the pretense of wanting to have sex with her. Breaking down and having reverted to his unrestrained alcoholism, Harry poorly mismanages the situation when Birgitta attempts to surprise him by coming by. Finding him drunk, naked, and with a prostitute, she storms out, giving Harry reason to believe that their relationship is over.

The next morning, the hungover Harry is expelled from the hotel for the noise made during the argument and his resulting rampage against the objects in the hotel room, r, the ultimate cause being his letting a prostitute into his room. For several days, Harry wanders about the city and tries to play detective while continually debilitated by his heavy intoxication. He is consequently kicked out from night clubs where he tries to pry information out of strongmen in the Sydney underworld.

Finally recovered from his binge, Harry contacts Birgitta - who has forgiven him and resumes their relationship. Under Harry's urging, Birgitta agrees to bait Evans by offering to meet him to buy dope. The plan is for her to press him to reveal information about the murders by threatening to go to the police with information she had allegedly heard from Inger. By then, however, Harry has come to the conclusion that it is not Evans who is the murderer, and he has somebody else in mind.

The operation falls apart when Birgitta disappears and the police are incapable of tracking down Evans in the vicinity of the planned meeting point or of the place that they last had contact with her. Harry later interrogates Evans once the police finds him. He claims that he was immediately suspicious of Enquist, and that she failed to meet him at the time and place agreed upon.

Harry confronts Toowoomba over the phone, who coldly admits to having committed all of the crimes. Toowoomba had for a time been in a relationship with Rechtnagel and the poor clown had eventually discovered his evil antics. Given Andrew's hopes for Toowoomba's career, Andrew had attempted to partially lead Harry off track until he was sent back to Norway. Once it became clear that Rechtnagel would spill the beans to the police, he became a loose end for Toowoomba.

Harry and the police break into Toowoomba's apartment. Although they cannot find Birgitta there, they find a picture of a sailboat and discover a sailboat registered to Toowoomba in Sydney. The sailboat is empty, but they find Birgitta's body chained to the bottom of the docks.

All hell breaks loose when Harry and the police pursue Toowoomba to the Sydney Aquarium. There, Toowoomba nearly escapes on the roof, but Harry shoots the man once in the leg and once in the back. He falls into the tank containing a large predatory fish that wrenches his body to the bottom.

Translation status

This is the first of the Harry Hole novels, introducing the character, but it was very late in being translated to English. The British and American publishers chose to start by translating the later books, set in Oslo, and only after these became very popular came around to publishing the first book, set in Australia.

This order of publication caused an unintended spoiler, as Harry's reminiscences in a later book - published earlier in English - included the name and specific characteristics of the murderer in "The Bat".

The second book, The Cockroaches, set in Thailand, has now been translated to English.