The Absent One (Department Q Series #2)

by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Overview

Copenhagen’s Detective Carl Mørck is back and ready for action in the second Department Q novel from the “new ‘it’ boy of Nordic Noir” (The Times, London).

Carl Mørck has settled into Department Q and is ready to take on another cold case. This time, it’s the brutal double-murder of a brother and sister two decades earlier. One of the suspects confessed and is serving time, but it’s clear to Mørck that all is not what it seems. Kimmie, a homeless woman with secrets involving certain powerful individuals, could hold the key—if Mørck can track her down before they do...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142196830
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/07/2013
Series:	Department Q Series , #2
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	139,733
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s #1 crime writer and a New York Times bestselling author. His books, including the Department Q series, routinely top the bestseller lists in Europe and have sold more than fifteen million copies around the world. His many prestigious Nordic crime-writing awards include the Glass Key Award, also won by Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, and Peter Høeg.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Keeper of Lost Causes is dark, atmospheric, and compelling. Those who loved The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will devour this book."
— C.J. Box

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Absent One

“Adler-Olsen, Denmark’s leading crime fiction author, outdoes his outstanding debut, The Keeper of Lost Causes, with his second Department Q novel.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Adler-Olsen's humor and his portrayal of Kimmie's sad life make The Absent One stand out among today's flood of Nordic mysteries.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The Copenhagen-set sequel to The Keeper of Lost Causes is quirky and wry.”—The Sacramento Bee

“Adler-Olsen has created a wonderful addition to the detective fiction genre...Readers of detective fiction, international crime fiction, and suspense fiction will highly enjoy this thriller.”—Library Journal (starred review)

More Praise for Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series

“If you like the dark humor, wisecracking, and layered betrayals of Raymond Chandler, then read Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series.”—Men's Journal

“A tense, pleasurable read.”—USA Today

“[A] sordid tale… inspired by actual events during a dark period of Danish history. Ah, but there is more, so much more in this frenzied thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Adler-Olsen merges story lines...with ingenious aplomb, effortlessly mixing hilarities with horrors...This crime fiction tour de force could only have been devised by an author who can even turn stomach flu into a belly laugh.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This series has enough twists to captivate contemporary mystery readers and enough substance and background to entertain readers with historical and literary tastes.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“When your series relies on cold cases, it’s not always easy to craft plots that have both historical interest and an air of urgency, but it’s something Adler-Olsen is very good at.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

Adler-Olsen, Denmark’s leading crime fiction author, outdoes his outstanding debut, Keeper of Lost Causes, with his second Department Q novel. No one knows how prickly Copenhagen Deputy Det. Supt. Carl Morck, the head of Department Q, which handles cold cases, received the file about the 1987 murder of an 18-year-old brother and a 17-year-old sister in a summer cottage. At the time suspicion fell on six boarding-school friends, but the police could find no evidence. Nine years later, a member of that group, the only one who had been on scholarship, confessed and went to prison. Morck and his misfit assistants, Assad and Rose, discover that the blood lust of those same students, now wealthy leaders of society, has not abated. These men fear only one thing—a homeless woman who used to be part of their gang. An insightful look at ruthless people seduced by violence and hiding behind their wealth fuels the surprise-filled plot. Morck’s life is never simple, whether it involves office politics, stymied investigations, or guilt over his paralyzed partner. Agent: Sarah Hunt Cooke, international rights director at Penguin UK. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Carl Mørck of Copenhagen's cold case Department Q wonders who has dropped the closed case of a pair of long-ago thrill killings on his desk. The murders were fomented by a clique of spoiled boarding school students, one of whom confessed and is serving time. The rest have grown rich and influential and highly motivated to keep the case ice-cold, but there is an absent member of their group unaccounted for: Kimmie, the only girl, now living on the streets, completely ruined and completely dangerous. With his vivid vocal portraits, Steven Pacey builds a complex world from gated country estate to junkie flophouse while maintaining a heart-pounding momentum. His doomed street urchin, Rat Tina, will haunt you, but then the whole gripping puzzle will. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2012 - AudioFile

Copenhagen Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Mørck returns from vacation to discover that his tiny cold case unit, Department Q, has been reshuffled, and a citizen's complaint has reopened a 20-year-old case on which all the relevant documents have disappeared. Ditlev Pram is a founder of private hospitals. Ulrik Dybbøl Jensen is a stock market analyst. Torsten Florin is a prominent designer. Before they achieved their success, however, they were fifth-form students together at Rødovre High School along with Kristian Wolf, Bjarne Thøgersen and Kirsten-Marie Lassen. These last three haven't done so well. Kristian died in an apparent hunting accident; Bjarne is doing time for killing Lisbet Jørgeneon and her brother Søren back in 1987; and Kimmie is living on the streets of Copenhagen. Now new evidence suggests that all six of them were responsible for the Jørgensens' deaths and for a whole lot more mayhem as well. The upshot of Carl's dogged investigation is to get himself suspended from the force. But aided and abetted by his loyal Syrian assistant, Hafez el-Assad, and his new secretary, Rose Knudsen, assigned to his unit after she failed her police driving test, he continues to build a case against his influential quarry, themselves desperate to track down Kimmie, whose voices have been telling her that it's time to get revenge on them for their mistreatment of her. The long, eventful, often tedious chase climaxes in a wild hunt guaranteed to satisfy the most bloodthirsty readers. As in Department Q's debut (The Keeper of Lost Causes, 2011), Adler-Olsen plots and writes with both eyes on Stieg You-Know-Who. The result is overscaled, lumpy, strenuously unnuanced and destined for the bestseller lists.

Kirkus Reviews