Danish detective Carl Mørck investigates cold cases as head of Department Q. Not only must Carl deal with his offbeat assistants, Assad and Rose, but now a new person has been assigned to the team. Carl knows this man is nothing more than a spy for his officious new boss. Adding to the stressful situation is the unusual cold case Assad and Rose have decided warrants investigation. Carl does not agree with them, until mysterious aspects of the missing-person case snag his attention.

William Stark vanished after returning from Africa, where he became suspicious about a misuse of funds. His boss at the Evaluation Department for Developmental Assistance could not have anyone uncovering the Danish banking fraud that had been perpetrated for the last several years. Zola, head of a local band of thieves, handled the situation. The vicious Zola just never imagined that his 15-year-old nephew, Marco Jameson, would find the grave—and later become a key element in Mørck's investigation into Stark's disappearance.

THE MARCO EFFECT by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Denmark's #1 crime writer, is the fifth Department Q book to be translated to English. Danish detective Mørck is a man living with a lot of stress dealing with the people he works with, as well as the people who inhabit his household. Although I did not find THE MARCO EFFECT to be as riveting as the first four books in this series, it is still a compelling story filled with detailed atmospheric narrative, expertly using flashbacks to develop the interesting plot.