The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2012: second book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by K.E. Semmel.)

From the inside flap

“[Detective Carl] Mørck is satisfied with the notion of picking up long-cold leads. So he’s naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk. A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and one of the suspects─part of a group of privileged boarding-school students─confessed and was convicted.

“But when Mørck reopens the files, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Looking into the supposedly solved case leads him to Kimmie, a woman living on the streetsk, stealing to survive. Kimmie has mastered evading the police, but now they aren’t the only ones looking for her─because Kimmie has secrets that certain influential individuals would kill to keep buried. . . as well as one of her own that could turn everything on its head.”

 

Review

Like the previous Department Q novel The Keeper of Lost Causes, Absent is an entertaining, slick and hard-to-set-down thriller/police procedural, this entry with particularly well-to-do and sadistic villains and a fascinating antihero (Kimmie) who’s stalking them. There are few surprises in Absent, but it’s still a good genre read, worth owning. Followed by A Conspiracy of Faith.

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The resulting 2014 Danish film, Department Q: The Absent One, was released in Denmark on November 23, 2014.

Mikkel Nørgaard directed the film, from a screenplay by Rasmus Heisterberg, based on Nikolaj Arcel’s concept.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas played Carl Mørck. Fares Fares played Hafez el-Assad. Søren Pilmark played Marcus Jacobsen. Morton Kirkskov played Lars Bjørn. Johanne Louis Schmidt played Rose.

Danica Curcic played Kimmie Katherine Greis-Rosenthal played Tine.

Pilou Asbӕk played Ditlev Pram. David Dencik played Ulrik Dybbøl.

Darkman: The Gods of Hell by Randall Boyll

 

(pb; 1994; third entry in the book-only Darkman quadrilogy)

From the back cover

“Darkman: Once Peyton Westlake was a brilliant scientist conducing ground-breaking work with artificial skin─but his life was changed forever when vicious gangsters destroyed his lab and left him horribly burned beyond recognition. At that moment, Peyton Westlake died and re-emerged from the hellish fire as DARKMAN, a creature of the night driven by superhuman rage. Using his artificial skin process and his ability to become anyone for ninety-nine minutes, DARKMAN extracted a deadly revenge on the men who destroyed his life.

“Now, across the city, children are disappearing, and the niece of Darkman’s former fiancée, Julie Hastings, is the latest victim. Searching for the kidnappers, Darkman stumbles across a strange cult sacrificing the children in a quest for immortality. Forced to infiltrate the group, Darkman must confront the diabolical plan’s evil mastermind, a deadly killer with a tortured past who will stop at nothing to find the secret of everlasting life.”

 

Review

A few days have passed since the events of the last Darkman book, The Price of Fear. Julie Hastings is recovering from Alfred Lowell/Witchfinder’s gasoline-soaked burning attack when the pestiferous Detective Sam Weatherspoon, investigating the Witchfinder’s assaults, tells her that her brother and sister-in-law (Jerry and Margaret Hastings) were killed in a home invasion. One of their young daughters, Tina, escaped harm and capture, while her tween sister (Shawna) was kidnapped by unknown criminals─the seventh kidnapping in a string of them.

Unbeknownst to Julie, Weatherspoon, and Darkman (a.k.a. Peyton Westlake, Julie’s ex-fiance) these crimes are being carried out by thugs, Pocketknife (a.k.a. Percy Hursch) and Flynn, at the behest of a desperate former-evangelist cult leader, Reverend Norman Hopewell, whose “Ceremonies of Youthful Defilement” require fresh female virgins.

Also in the pulptastic, fast-paced mix: Martin Clayborne, rich “local real estate developer” (from The Price of Fear), who continues to show romantic interest in Julie, and Darla Dalton, a mysterious woman who shows similar interest in Westlake.

Like Boyll’s previous Darkman novels, Gods is a hard-to-set-down, comic book-y, gory and over-the-top work with lots of cinematic vivid action, hyped up emotions and situations, and excellent writing and editing. This is a fun, worth-owning read (as are all the Darkman books thus far), if you’re looking for an unpretentious B-flick-style book that evolves the series and its distinctive and well-sketched characters between the splatter, violence, comeuppance and other explosions. 

Followed by Boyll’s Darkman: In the Face of Death.

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2011: first book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by Lisa Hartford.)

From the inside flap

“The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s. . . Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl Mørck, who used to be a good homicide detective─one of Copenhagen’s best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren’t so lucky, and Carl, who didn’t draw his weapon, blames himself.

“So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects.

“But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl’s been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigation division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen’s coldest cases to keep him company. Carl has been put out to pasture. So he’s as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she’s dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he’s wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh and redeem himself in the process.

“Because she isn’t dead. . . yet.”

Review

Keeper is an entertaining, well-written, slick and hard-to-set-down police procedural/thriller with unique-for-the-genre elements (a Muslim janitor detective and villains who utilize a striking form of victimizing the woman they’ve kidnapped). The set-up’s easy to piece together─not a flaw, a feature: it’s the how and who that matters here. Great start to a series, this, one worth reading and owning.

Followed by The Absent One.

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The resulting 2013 Danish film, Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes, was released in Denmark on October 3, 2013. Mikkel Nørgaard directed the film, from a screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas played Carl Mørck. Fares Fares played Hafez el-Assad. Sonja Richter played Merete Lyngaard.

Søren Pilmark played Marcus Jacobsen. Morton Kirkskov played Lars Bjørn. Per Scheel Krüger played Anker. Troels Lyby played Hardy Henningsen.

Mikkel Boe Følsgaard played Uffe Lyngaard. Patricia Schumann played Søs Norup. Rasmus Botoft played Tage Baggesen.

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(1993-5, 1996 – graphic novel, collects issues 57-69 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Frank McConnell. Tenth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

From the back cover

“They have had many names: The Erinyes. The Eumenides. The Dirae. The Furies. Agents of vengeance, implacable and unstoppable., they do not rest until the crime they seek to punish is washed clean with blood. It is to them, The Kindly Ones, that Lyta Hall turns when her baby Daniel is taken from her, and it is the Dream of the Endless who becomes their target. But behind a mother’s grief and unyielding rage, there are darker forces at work, and what they set in motion will eventually demand a sacrifice greater than any the Dreaming has yet known.”

 

Overall review

Kindly is one of the most emotionally satisfying and intense storylines of the Sandman series, with recurring characters driving the sometimes-twisty events with their passions and their guilts─in the Dream King’s case, the murder of his son, Orpheus. Intertwined in the themes of guilt, grief, rage and forgiveness, there’s Gaiman’s usual skewering of sexism, homophobia, and other nasty human motives. Excellent read, one of the best Sandman offerings, this.

As in previous Sandman graphic novels, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation. Followed by The Sandman: The Wake.

 

Review, issue by issue

“The Kindly Ones: 1” (#57): Two-thirds of the triumvirate Furies (Stheno, Euryale) have tea. Hippolyta Hall, living with her baby (Daniel) and her friend (Carla), checks out a dodgy job. Matthew, Morpheus’s raven, queries those around the Dream Lord about the fates of the ravens who came after him.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 2” (#58): Hippolyta speaks with Stheno and Euryale. Clurican, the fairy Duke of the Yarrow and the Flay and brother of Nuala (Morpheus’s servant) visits the Dream King with a request.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 3” (#59): Hob Gadling, mourning the death of his most recent wife─he is immortal, or close to it─is visited by Morpheus. Hippolyta gets news about her kidnapped son (Daniel) and forms a plan.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 4” (#60): Remiel, one of the angelic guardians of Hell, visits Lucifer. Hippolyta seeks out Stheno and Euryale in real-time to achieve revenge for her kidnapped son’s fate. Carla visits her and Hippolyta’s downstairs neighbor, Rose Walker. Morpheus resurrects the Corinthian, this version slightly more obedient than the last one.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 5” (#61): The two Furies (Stheno, Euryale) try to convince Hippolyta Hall to stay with them, become the new version of their long-dead sister (Medusa). Rose Walker visits her ex-neighbor, Zelda (minus her dead sister, Chantal). Morpheus charges Matthew the raven and the Corinthian with a task. Nuala returns to her family castle in Faerie. Detective Pinkerton, creepy cop, reveals his true identity to Carla.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 6” (#62): Rose Walker flies to England to visit the nursing home where her grandmother, Unity Kinkaid, died. Rose interviews doctors and patients within the institution and is told sometimes creepy stories and sweet tales about her once-comatose relative. Larissa, the terrifying, blood-spattered witch girl with Coke bottle glasses, locates Hippolyta Hall

 

“The Kindly Ones: 7” (#63): Larissa takes in Hippolyta Hall. Odin, a.k.a. “Grim, the Death-Blinder, the High One, the Gallows-God,” visits the Dream King, speaks of a grievance stemming from events in the last issue of The Sandman: Season of Mists. Destiny grants his younger sibling Delirium a wish. Morpehus visits Gilbert, a.k.a. Fiddler’s Green, who expresses concern about the Lord of Dreams. Hippolyta speaks anew with the two Furies about vengeance and its rules.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 8” (#64): Rose Walker meets Desire. Delirium visits Morpheus. Matthew the raven and The Corinthian locate Carla’s burnt corpse─The Corinthian says he knows who killed her. Stheno, Euryale and Rose visit Morpheus, much to the dismay of one of the Dream Lord’s gatekeepers (Gryphon). Rose Walker hooks up with a nice guy with relevant secrets.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 9” (#65): Rose Walker visits Fawney Rig, a manor was called Wych Manor─the waking-world site of Morpheus’s 70-year imprisonment. While there, Rose meets Desire, who claims to be related to her.

In Swartalfheim, the Corinthian and Matthew the raven confront Loki. The two Furies and Hipplyta kill another of Morpheus’s servants (Gilbert, a.k.a. Fiddler Green). Morpheus visits Larissa, the spooky woman with Coke bottle-top glasses. Matt the raven meets one of Noah’s seven raven (“Raven”). The Corinthian locates Hippolyta’s son, Daniel.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 10” (#66): The Corinthian rescues Daniel, and while do so meets Robin Goodfellow (a.k.a. Puck). Odin retrieves Loki. Abel is visited by the two Furies (a.k.a. the Dirae) and Hipplyta. In Faerie, where Puck has recently returned, wild social changes take place. Nuala makes big life-changing decisions. Mervyn confronts Hippolyta and the Furies. Rose Walker returns to America.

“The Kindly Ones: 11” (#67): The Corinthian and Daniel meet Cain and Goldie. Rose discovers that Zelda, her ex-neighbor, has passed. Cain, Goldie, The Corinthian and Daniel reach Morpheus’s castle, as does Morpheus and the Dirae.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 12” (#68): Morpheus talks with Matthew the Raven while preparing for war with the Furies. Rose and her ex-neighbor, Hal, attend Zelda’s funeral.

 

“The Kindly Ones: 13” (#69): Everything comes to a head, the conflict between the Dream Lord and the Dirae resolving in a multi-realm-changing fashion─strange rebirths of sorts.

Friday the 13th Part 3: 3-D by Michael Avallone

 

(1982; movie tie-in novel, based on a screenplay by Martin Kittrosser and Carol Watson)

From the back cover

“He lies in wait. Patiently. Quietly. Ready to strike. As darkness settles over the forest, the victims enter his lair. And one by one they die!”

Review

The plot of the third Friday runs thusly: Chris Higgins, survivor of a failed attack by Jason a few years prior─an assault not shown in either of the two previous films─takes seven of her friends to her family cottage (Higgins Haven) near Crystal Lake. Jason, who is not specified by name until late in the book, takes umbrage at this and brutally dispatches those he views as invaders.

The blunt, giddily unhinged and no-nuance writing is appropriately choppy (given the rapid-style editing of the Friday movies), with head-hopping between characters (often within the same paragraph), the death scenes simile-laden, and the characters Friday-stock (though Avallone gives at least one of the characters a surname, Vera Sanchez). Much of Friday reads like A solid writer with a short deadline wrote a rough Ed Woodian slasher movie tie-in novel, with a focus on hyperbolic, darkly humorous dread and violence, e.g.:

“The hand twisted the cleaver in a vicious, merciless circle. Harold’s chest exploded in flame and agony. 

“His paunchy body toppled backwards, crashing to the floor.

“The meat cleaver jutted from his chest like a tombstone.” (p. 30)

. . .or:

“[Jason’s] mad eyes shone like fiery coals in the gloom of the porch.” (p. 152)

Is Friday worth reading? Yes, if the above passages entertain you. Not only that, the out-of-print Friday is an alternate version of the 1982 film on which it is based─it was written before canon was established within the franchise, and there are noticeable differences between the 1982 book and its source flick.

One of the big differences is Jason laughs, chuckles, howls and screams in the book, something he doesn’t do in the films. In the book, Loco is black, not white. The book also has a different ending, one that negates Jason’s chances of returning, unless he encounters Re-Animator‘s Dr. Herbert West (or somebody like him) or the Friday works that followed were prequels.

There appears to be a fun Halloween (1978) shout-out in the scene where Edna, husband-pecking future Jason victim, sees a figure moving between her windblown laundry on a clothesline. Debbie, one of Chris’s friends, reads a “shocker” by Sidney Stewart titled The Beast With Red Hands─this is a real-life, low-brow Robert Blochian thriller (judging by Amazon reviews), penned by Avallone under the aforementioned nom de plume, one of seventeen the prolific author used in his career.

If you’re entertained by low-brow movie tie-in thrillers that read like they were hastily written and edited or you’re a die-hard Friday fan, Avallone’s Friday might be a worthwhile investment.

Note: In 1988, another, presumably more canon-friendly book version was published, Simon Hawke’s Friday the 13^th: Part 3. Like Avallone’s Friday, it’s out of print and pricy, and is said to have its own minor variations (e.g., giving Edna and Hank more of a backstory, as well as Jason).

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The source/counterpart film was released stateside on August 13, 1982. Steve Miner directed it, from a screenplay by Martin Kittrosser and Carol Watson.

Richard Brooker played Jason Voorhees.

Dana Kimmell played Chris Higgins. Paul Kratka played Rick, Chris’s would-be boyfriend. Tracie Savage played Debbie. Jeffrey Rogers played Andy, Debbie’s boyfriend.

Catherine Parks played Vera Sanchez. Larry Zerner played Shelly, Vera’s “loser” prankster and Vera’s blind date─and previous owner of Jason’s now-iconic white mask. Rachel Howard played Chili. David Katims played Chuck.

Gloria Charles played Foxy. Nick Savage played Ali. Kevin O’Brien played Loco.

Cheri Maugans played Edna. Steve Susskind played Harold, Edna’s henpecked spouse. David Wiley played Abel, the Biblical doomsaying bum.