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.

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.