The Scarred Woman (Department Q Series #7)

by Jussi Adler-Olsen Narrated by Graeme Malcolm

Overview

The*New York Times*and #1 internationally bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Causes delivers his most captivating and suspenseful Department Q novel yet-perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson.
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Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division, meets his toughest challenge yet when the dark, troubled past of one of his own team members collides with a sinister unsolved murder.

In a Copenhagen park the body of an elderly woman is discovered. The case bears a striking resemblance to another unsolved homicide investigation from over 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 of Department Q is charged with solving the mystery.
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Back at headquarters, Carl and his team are under pressure to deliver results: failure to meet his superiors' expectations will mean the end of Department Q. Solving the case, however, is not their only concern. After an earlier breakdown, their colleague Rose 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, Assad, and Gordon to uncover the dark and violent truth at the heart of Rose's childhood before it is too late.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

10/30/2017
Scottish actor Malcolm returns to ably narrate the latest installment of the Department Q series by bestselling Danish crime novelist Adler-Olsen. The series stars Carl Mørck, the cantankerous middle-age head of Copenhagen’s Department Q, a neglected cold-case division housed in the basement of police headquarters. As the book opens, Mørck and his team are investigating several unpromising and seemingly unrelated cases, which turn out to be linked. They’re also facing budget cuts, bureaucratic rivalries, and the disappearance of a mentally ill colleague. The book’s many subplots keep the listener attuned, and the resolutions are satisfying. Malcolm is an excellent stand-in for Mørck in both tone and temperament, and he also skillfully represents the book’s other characters, many of whom are young women. He’s called upon to employ a range of accents, including German and Icelandic, and rises to the challenge. This seventh outing for Mørck will delight Adler-Olsen’s many fans, and Malcolm once again delivers as narrator. A Dutton hardcover. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

07/10/2017
Scandinavian crime fiction fans will find bestseller Adler-Olsen’s seventh Department Q novel (after 2015’s The Hanging Girl) satisfyingly dark, both in tone and content. Carl Mørck, the cantankerous head of Department Q (Copenhagen’s cold-case division), seeks a connection between the murder of an elderly woman and a similar crime more than a decade earlier. With looming budget cuts threatening the very existence of Department Q and a crime documentary program’s production crew dogging his every move, Mørck must also deal with the mental unraveling of his assistant, Rose Knudsen, whose nightmarish past comes to light after she inexplicably vanishes. When Mørck and his team discover that a series of brutal hit-and-run murders targeting young women are connected with not only the cold case but Rose’s disappearance, they must locate her before it’s too late. The parallel story lines make this an undeniable page-turner, but the portrayal of female characters as morally bankrupt and/or irreparably damaged may strike some readers as chauvinistic. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

Praise for The Scarred Woman

“Scandinavian crime novels don’t get much darker than Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q police procedurals.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“[S]atisfyingly dark, both in tone and content...an undeniable page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly

“[R]iveting...All of the Department Q books contain dark humor, high satire, social commentary—not always politically correct—and grand villains, with The Scarred Woman being no exception.”—BookReporter

“[M]esmerizing...The cleverly devised plot paints a fascinating tale of murder and mayhem with a touch of witty and subtle humor.”—Fresh Fiction 

“You’ll be desperate to figure out the identity of the scarred woman as the suspense drives toward a deadly and at times comical conclusion.”—Associated Press

“The novel is eerily timely...[and] the relationship and banter between Carl and his associate Assad, with Assad's ‘linguistic blunders,’ continue to elicit chuckles. Adler-Olsen is deadly serious, though, and compassionate when it comes to poor, traumatized Rose. She may have emotional scars but her friends have got her back.”—Shelf Awareness

“The legions of readers still enjoying the Millennium books will devour this seventh in a series starring the officers of Copenhagen’s cold-case unit, Department Q.”—Booklist

“Filled with dark humor and tight plotting....Highly recommended.”—Spinetingler Magazine

“Highly recommended as dark literature written with beauty and class.”—The Suspense Is Thrilling Me Blog

“[A] superbly constructed multi-layered mystery.”—Murder, Mayhem, and More 

Praise for Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series

“It can be hard to distinguish Scandinavian crime writers—there are a lot of them, and their names have consonant clusters and umlauts and all that jazz—but Jussi Adler-Olsen is a name to know. In a crowded genre, Adler-Olsen is an outlier.”—GQ.com 

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

“Thrilling, clever, and driven by a rough-hewn protagonist.”—Paste Magazine

“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

Library Journal

05/15/2017
The seventh book in the best-selling "Department Q" series finds Copenhagen Det. Carl MØrck contending with an unsolved murder case, the troubled past of a member of his team, and the possible end of his department. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17.]

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

What’s the connection between the elderly woman whose head was bashed in and the young woman who was rammed by a car? That’s one of the questions in the latest of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s excellent mysteries about Copenhagen’s Department Q, which investigates cold cases. Graeme Malcolm’s understated, almost gentle, narration is one of the many pleasures of this ungentle story as Inspector Carl Mørck and his team navigate related cases, police politics, and the collapse of a beloved colleague. Malcolm captures the characters’ personalities and accents—Mørck’s voice is tired, his tone sometimes impatient, and Inspector Assad sounds foreign born. Malcolm also shines when called upon to channel aggrieved 20-something girls and an equally aggrieved murderous woman. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2017-07-04
Given the crowded field of wounded, murderous females on display in this seventh case for Copenhagen's Department Q (The Hanging Girl, 2015, etc.), it's hard to know just where to pin the title in this cavalcade of woman's inhumanity to woman.Whoever struck the blow that killed Rigmor Zimmermann and took 10,000 kroner from her handbag seemed to be copying the murder of substitute teacher Stephanie Gundersen more than 10 years ago, with one important difference: Gundersen's killer didn't go the extra mile in humiliation by pissing on her corpse. Carl Mørck, who heads Department Q, seizes the possible connection as avidly as a spaniel on a scent because solving another cold case would be the perfect way to keep Copenhagen's tightfisted budgeters from shutting his unit down. Unfortunately, Carl's boss, Lars Bjørn, has his own idea of the perfect way: allow meddlesome TV crime documentarian Olaf Borg-Pedersen unobstructed access to Department Q's inner workings as they plod from one crime scene to the next. Meanwhile, social worker Anne-Line Svendsen, reprieved from the death sentence she feared her cancer diagnosis spelled, has decided to go ahead anyway with her plan to execute some of the prostitutes she counts among her most worthless clients: Michelle Hansen, Jazmine Jørgensen, Birna Sigurdardottir, Senta Berger, and Denise Zimmermann—some of whom turn out to be quite as homicidally inclined as she is, and one of whom will have a crucial connection to Carl's cold case. The only thing needed to bring the whole mixture to a full boil is the mental breakdown of sorely tried Department Q staffer Rose Knudsen, whose suicide attempt ends up plunging her into the heart of this banquet of mostly female felonies.Instead of focusing on a single high-concept case, Adler-Olsen lays out several florid plotlines and sets his crime-solvers the daunting task of gathering all the threads together. It's such a varied smorgasbord that even readers who'd prefer to skip a given dish will find plenty to sate their appetites.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169123685
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Series:	Department Q Series , #7
Edition description:	Unabridged

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Copyright © 2017 Jussi Adler-Olsen.
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