The Shadow Murders by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2022: ninth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“On her sixtieth birthday, a woman takes her own life. When the case lands on Detective Carl Mørck’s desk, he can’t imagine what this has to do with Department Q. Copenhagen’s cold cases division, since the cause of death seems apparent. However, his superior, Marcus Jacobsen, is convinced that this suicide is related to an unsolved case that has been plaguing him since 1988.

“At Marcus’s behest, Carl and the Department Q gang—Rose, Assad, and Gordon—reluctantly begin to investigate. And they quickly discover that Marcus is onto something: Every two years for the past three decades, there have been unusual, impeccably timed deaths with connections between them that cannot be ignored, including the mysterious piles of salt at the scenes. As the investigation goes deeper, it emerges that these ‘accidents’ are in fact part of a sinister murder scheme.

“Faced with their toughest case yet, made only more difficult by COVID-19 restrictions and the challenges of their personal lives, the Department Q team must race to find the culprit before the next murder is committed, as it is becoming increasingly clear that the killer is far from finished.”

 

Review

A year or so after the events of Victim 2117, Carl Mørck and the rest of Department Q are still haunted by their pasts, particularly Assad’s family (his wife and children are still fragile after an extensive stint as a terrorist’s hostages) and Mørck, whose 1988 nail-gun case (with others’ planted drug and money evidence) still excites certain police investigators who still want Mørck to turn in his badge. The case that Department Q eventually finds itself investigating is one of manners, murder, manipulation and obsession, and is not initially gripping as previous cases, but the writing is still top-notch and eventually the case becomes more interesting as the tale goes on.  As with previous Department Q novels, this is an immediately engaging (with its familiar-in-a-good-way characters), steady-build and excellent police procedural thriller.

Victim 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2020: eighth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117─the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold case division led by Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous─and deeply personal─case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past but has deadly implications about the future.

“For troubled Danish teen Alexander, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghaalib, one of the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib─Saddam Hussein’s infamous prison─the death of Victim 2117 is the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q’s Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past─and the family he assumed was long dead. . .”

 

Review

Caveat: (possible) mini-spoilers in this review.

Twelve years have passed since the happenings of The Keeper of Lost Causes, and two since the last entry, The Scarred Woman.

Victim is (thus far) my favorite Department Q novel, a pulse-thumping thriller with underlying potent pitch-black nastiness (e.g. mentioned rape, torture), mixed with equally shaded (sometimes humorous) twists and, eventually, a semblance of guarded hope. This eighth entry in the series also gives more writing space to the mentally fragile Rose Knudsen (still recovering from the traumas of The Scarred Woman) and Assad (and his mysterious past and family life)─in writing this, Adler-Olsen adds further emotional depth to his recurring and Victim-introduced characters, particularly Rose, Assad, and Lars Bjorn, the Homicide Chief for whom Carl Mørck bears much animus, much of it deserved. Even opportunistic reporter Joan Aiguader, new to the series, gets some understanding, though the main villains of Victim (Ghaalib and unrelated incel, Alexander) don’t get much sympathy (understandable, given their motivations and actions).

Victim, heartbreaking, cautiously hopeful and starkly realistic, is an excellent, burn-through, how-can-I-set-this-down read, one worth owning. Followed by The Shadow Murders, scheduled for publication on September 27, 2022.

The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(pb; 2017: seventh book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold case division, meets his toughest challenge yet when the dark, troubled past of one of his team members collides with a sinister unsolved murder.

“In a Copenhagen park, a woman’s body is discovered. The case bears a striking resemblance to another unsolved murder investigation from more than a decade ago, but the connection between the two victims confounds the police. Across town, a group of young women are being hunted. The attacks seem random, but could these brutal acts of violence be related? Detective Carl Mørck is charged with solving the mystery.

“Back at headquarters, Carl and his team are under pressure to deliver results: failure to meet his supervisors’ expectations will mean the end of Department Q. Solving the case, however, is not their only concern. After an earlier breakdown, their colleague Rose [Knudsen], is still struggling to deal with the reemergence of her past─a past in which a terrible crime may have been committed. It is up to Carl and his team to uncove the dark and violent truth at the heart of Rose’s childhood, while working the cases that will define their careers before it is too late.”

 

Review

A social worker, sick of the slutty layabouts she is forced to deal with, decides to start offing a few of them. Meanwhile, Rose Knudsen, one of Department Q’s key investigators, has a multiple-personality crisis stemming from the events of The Hanging Girl, a crisis that that threatens not only her role within the department, but her continued breath.

This seventh Department Q novel is an especially emotional entry in the series, and like its preceding books, deftly juggles multiple cases─which may or may not be linked─and elements that come together in a satisfactory, well-paced and entertaining manner. Another great police procedural-hybrid-genre read, Scarred is worth owning. Followed by Victim 2117.

The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(pb; 2015: sixth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“In the middle of his usual hard-won morning nap in the basement of police headquarters, Carl Mørck, head of Department Q, receives a call from an old colleague working on the Danish island of Bornholm. Carl is dismissive when he realizes that a new case is being foisted on him, but a few hours later, he receives some shocking news that leaves his headstrong assistant Rose more furious than usual.

“Carl has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious seventeen-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult in Sweden, where Carl, Assad, Rose, and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything─or anyone─get in the way.”

 

Review

This Department Q case, revolving around a sun-based cult and its possibly murderous leader (Atu), is a steady-build, character-centric police procedural that, like its predecessor Department Q novels, is a slick, entertaining, sometimes quirky, and twist-punctuated read. It’s more low-key than other books in the series but it has its own vibe, a work worth checking out. Followed by The Scarred Woman.