‘Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole’ ending explained: Who is the killer?
Netflix takes troubled detectives very seriously, whether it’s Agent Turner or DCI Morck. So, there’s no doubt that Harry Hole, the brilliant but tormented detective of Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, would follow in the footsteps.
Created by Jo Nesbø, the gripping new whodunit, currently streaming on Netflix, adapts the Norwegian author’s fifth book, The Devil’s Star, of the best-selling Harry Hole novel series, which opens with a series of murders across Oslo that seemed to have sent townsmen into alert.
At every crime scene, the police notice an eerie pattern: a missing finger and a red diamond shaped like a pentagram. The case is assigned to Detective Harry Hole, whose unconventional approach constantly puts him at odds with his contemporaries. But as the bodies pile up, and the evidence hints at a serial killer on the loose, disguised as a bike courier, something tells Harry that the killer is not who it seems.
As if the cases are any less of a riddle, Harry also feels that a web of corruption is plaguing the police department, with his eyes of suspicion set on Detective Tom Waaler. But circling back to the central murder mystery in Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, the burning question is: who is the actual killer?
Who is the killer in Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole?
Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole is packed with red herrings, which makes predicting the killer at one go a challenge in itself. But by the end of episode six of the Netflix thriller, all the evidence points to Martin Aminov, a smuggler involved in international weapons trafficking and the blood diamonds trade. Martin’s frequent travels across Oslo during the time of the murders, his checkered past, and the pentagram-shaped red diamonds found at the crime scenes don’t help his case either.
Despite every piece of the puzzle seemingly falling into place, Harry feels that something is definitely off, as if someone deliberately manipulated the evidence to frame Martin. And his instincts actually turn out to be right when the police receive a finger of Lisbeth Barli, who disappeared earlier in the show. The fennel seeds found under her fingernails confirm Harry’s suspicion as he recalls her husband, Willy Barli, consuming those on the day of her disappearance.
Hole deduces that Willy must have cut her finger and hidden it in a “rather unconventional place,” which is further verified by the theatre director, who confessed to the plot as a way to distract the sniffer dogs. As for those curious about the motive, Willy admits to Hole that during their honeymoon in Prague, he learned about Lisbeth’s affair with Aminov.
Initially, he thought that was the end of it. But after finding letters years later that proved Lisbeth had been sending money to Martin and planning to betray him, Willy orchestrated a meticulous plan to eliminate her. While there’s another conspiracy brewing just beneath the surface of the main killer mystery in Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, to find out what it is, hit the play button already!