Starting off with “The Bat” — #1 in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø

When you start a series from the 7th book, crawl your way to the thirteenth one, come to a halt and then start again from the very first book you now have a prequel point of view. You've already seen the complexity of the world, the characters, their interpersonal relationships. You have witnessed the loss of them. And you've mourned them. But now that you start afresh you see there was a time when they were strangers, when they didn't know what the future had in store for them. Now you've a look at the pure souls who started this journey for you, the readers, most of all Harry Hole with a seemingly unblemished consciousness and a hint of innocence.

Jo Nesbø is meticulous with his stories. His world building takes time. The plot grows alongside the real world. With each new case the time is always ticking for the next victim and for Harry Hole but we readers are given ample time to delve into the psyche of all the characters. We get to deep dive into their personal lives as they wrestle the onslaught of a killer on spree in and around Oslo. But it wasn’t always Oslo. There was a time when Harry wasn’t as damaged as he is at the end of "Killing Moon". It all started far from Norway - in Australia. The first crack in Harry’s spirit is to be formed. You feel it because you have seen his future and just want to embrace this still-wet-behind-the-ears detective deputed all the way to Australia to help solve a murder mystery of a once small time celeb from Norway, found strangled in the foreign land.

Harry has just landed in Sydney and already been warned by the local police to stay put from the investigation. But if that would have been the case Harry would have been able to save himself instead.
Well...what happens happened.