After the great success of solving his first cold case for
Department Q, Danish Homicide Detective Carl Morck is ready
to tackle another one. But with so many files in his
office, which one should it be? The choice is made for
Morck when an anonymous person places a file on his desk
about the 1987 brutal murders of an 18-year-old brother and
his 17-year-old sister. At the time, police suspected a six-
member group of privileged boarding school friends made up
of five boys and one girl, but they could never find enough
evidence to prove their guilt. Nine years after the event,
one of the boys finally confessed and is serving time in
prison. As the only member of the boarding school suspects
who wasn't from an affluent family, it's amazing the wealth
he's acquired while incarcerated. Did he take the fall for
someone else -- and a large amount of money?
This is only one aspect of the reopened cold case that
bothers Morck. After 20 years, the rest of the boys in the
group are now highly influential, extremely wealthy leaders
in society, while the girl is a homeless woman, stealing to
survive on the streets of Copenhagen even though she's
worth millions. Why is her life so different from the
others? Feeling she may hold the key to the investigation,
Morck and his assistants Assad and Rose search for her. But
there are others who don't want her found and will do
whatever it takes to silence her.
As Morck delves deeper and deeper into this cold case, the
more evidence he uncovers of other crimes that seem to be
linked to this dysfunctional group of school chums over the
years. It all seems too depraved to be true, but when Morck
and Assad find themselves fighting for their lives, the
horrible reality is finally revealed.
THE ABSENT ONE is the second book in the Denmark-set
Department Q series by best-selling Danish author Jussie
Adler-Olsen following THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES. I
reviewed the first book and found it exceptional. This new
novel is even more atmospherically compelling and
interesting than the first. The main characters are
believably complex, yet affable, and the plotline will keep
you turning pages long into the night to reach the riveting
finish. I can't wait for the next installment!
New York Times bestseller Jussi Adler-Olsen returns with the
second book in his electrifying Department Q series.
In The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen introduced
Detective Carl Mørck, a deeply flawed, brilliant detective
newly assigned to run Department Q, the home of Copenhagen’s
coldest cases. The result wasn’t what Mørck — or readers —
expected, but by the opening of Adler-Olsen’s shocking,
fast-paced follow-up, 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 once 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 streets,
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.
Every bit as pulse-pounding as the book that launched the
series, The Absent One delivers further proof that Jussi
Adler-Olsen is one of the world's premier thriller writers.