The Keeper of Lost Causes: A Department Q NovelJussi Adler-Olsen
Plume, July 2012
ISBN: 978-0452297906
Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen follows Danish Chief Detective Carl Morck, as he gets promoted to head a special police department dedicated to solving old cases which were never solved, and referred to as Department Q.
Once Copenhagen's best homicide detective, Carl Morck has now been assigned to head up Department Q. The department consists of Carl and a custodian, Muslim immigrant Assad, who turns out to be more like a partner than a custodian. Department Q, housed in the police headquarters basement, is given cold case files of `special focus' to solve.
Department Q has been funded by parliament in order to solve dead cases, especially those that involve persons of interest or famous victims. Carl's first case is the five-year-old disappearance of politician Merete Lynggaard, and the narrative bounces back and forth between Merete’s experience in 2002 and Carl’s unraveling the case in 2007.
Merete Lynggaard, a once promising Danish politician, is kidnapped and has been held in captivity since 2002. She has no idea why she has been kidnapped, or by whom. She is placed in an empty concrete cell with two buckets given to her each day; one for her waste products and the other with barely edible food. Each year, on her birthday, the atmospheric pressure in her chamber is turned up, and will continue until she is able to answer her captors’ question: "Why are you here?"
The Keeper of Lost Causes is a definite thriller, a real race against the clock, but its particular strength is in the relationship it portrays between Detective Carl Morck and mysterious Middle Eastern refugee Hafez al-Assad. Morck is a burned-out cop and Assad is a man who was hired for his janitorial skills--but together they add up to something much greater than the sum of their parts. The Keeper of Lost Causes is another brilliant crime thriller in the Scandinavian thriller genre.
JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN was born in Copenhagen and studied medicine, sociology, politics and film. He worked as a magazine editor and publisher before starting to write fiction. So far he has written three Department Q thrillers, which all hit the Danish bestseller lists on publication and stayed there ever since.
ISBN: 978-0452297906; ISBN10: 0452297907; Imprint: Plume; On Sale: 7/31/2012; Format: Paperback; Pages: 416; $16.00
