Watching the Detectives

The Keeper of Lost Causes
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Dutton

I picked up my first Department Q novel on a whim. My cousin Emily had been reading them for a few years and when I told her I was all caught up on Ian Hamilton's Ava Lee detective series, she recommended that I give Jussi Adler-Olsen a whirl. I am totally addicted.

Carl Mørck was one of Copenhagen best homicide detectives until a case he was working went sideways. During the course of the investigation, he and his colleagues are ambushed; one of his partners is killed, the other is left a quadriplegic. Already emotionally struggling with his failure to protect his team, Mørck learns that he's been kicked off the homicide squad. Instead, he's been assigned to the newly formed Department Q -- the place where cold cases go to die. Mørck's not quite ready to sit back, relax, and glide into retirement. With some prodding from his assistant Assad, the two become engaged with a missing person's case -- one that just might prove that he hasn't lost his edge.

Darkly funny, moody, and intense, The Keeper of Lost Causes will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. It's as much a thriller as a mystery and I can guarantee that once you start one, you'll be reading them all. Four Scandi investigators out of five.