Perhaps the enemy feeds their men more and better food than that given to the Norwegians on the other side. There is disquiet amongst the remaining men, two of whom decide to defect to the Russian side. Charismatic young Daniel Gudeson kills a Russian soldier but, on New Year's Eve, is shot and killed by the Russians. In 1942, conditions for Norwegian soldiers on the Eastern Front are about as appalling as any produced by wartime can be. Thus, the dangerous, though dim, Olsen is released into the general community once more, free to take up profitable commissions such as assassinations. Hole and Gjelten are greatly upset when the case they have built against a Neo-Nazi, Sverre Olsen comes apart in court on a technicality. As a consequence, in order to cover up what happened, Harry is promoted to Inspector and is whisked from the immediate view of the media.

Because of inadequate communication between security details representing the hosts and the visitors, Harry perpetrates a blunder that could well escalate into an international incident if handled badly. In the modern day, Detective Harry Hole and his partner Ellen Gjelten are on security duty for the US President's visit to Norway. The novel is set in the modern day as well as the war years, from 1942 onwards.

Jo Nesbo doesn't deprive readers of a time fix in THE REDBREAST.

It has become such a common device in modern literature to have the narratives set in (at least) two time frames, that when this doesn't happen, the reader is likely to feel cheated.

The redbreast by jo nesbø