≡ Libro Gratis The Keeper of Lost Causes A Department Q Novel Jussi AdlerOlsen 9780525952480 Books

The Keeper of Lost Causes A Department Q Novel Jussi AdlerOlsen 9780525952480 Books

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The Keeper of Lost Causes A Department Q Novel Jussi AdlerOlsen 9780525952480 Books

Some aspects are predictable but it's better then most stories, or so she told me. 1 2 3 4 5 more words


Tags : The Keeper of Lost Causes: A Department Q Novel [Jussi Adler-Olsen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Jussi Adler-Olsen, author of The Absent One</i>, is Denmark's premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe,Jussi Adler-Olsen,The Keeper of Lost Causes: A Department Q Novel,Dutton,0525952489,Copenhagen (Denmark);Fiction.,Missing persons;Investigation;Fiction.,Police;Denmark;Fiction.,Danish (Language) Contemporary Fiction,Denmark,Fiction,Fiction - Mystery Detective,Fiction Mystery & Detective General,Fiction Thrillers General,Fiction Thrillers Suspense,Investigation,Missing persons,Mystery & Detective - General,Mystery And Suspense Fiction,Mystery fiction,MysterySuspense,Police,Thrillers - General,Thrillers - Suspense

The Keeper of Lost Causes A Department Q Novel Jussi AdlerOlsen 9780525952480 Books Reviews

The Scandinavian invasion continues with Jussi Adler-Olsen's "The Keeper of Lost Causes," translated from the Danish by Tïina Nunnally. The protagonist, Carl Mørck, is a deputy detective superintendent who has just been "promoted" to Department Q, of which he is the head and sole employee. His remit is to handle "cases deserving special scrutiny." Mørck is a chronic troublemaker ("lazy, surly, morose") who talks back to his bosses and does pretty much what he wants to do. He has never completely recovered from a tragic shooting that left his two partners dead and paralyzed respectively, and he still feels guilty that he could do nothing to save his colleagues. His wife left him, but she still badgers him; he has no social life to speak of; when he assumes his new position, he is relegated to a windowless basement office where, his superiors hope, he will remain out of sight and out of mind.

Everything changes when Carl demands an assistant. He gets a lot more than he bargained for--a Muslim named Assad who is a jack-of-all trades Assad dons rubber gloves to clean thoroughly, makes bad coffee, drives like a madman, and acts like a Syrian Sherlock Holmes. Carl is content to put his feet up, smoke cigarettes, and do little or nothing, but Assad digs into the case files. He shows an amazing aptitude for locating valuable nuggets of information, gaining cooperation from secretaries and bureaucrats, and goading Carl into acting like a detective. This unlikely duo soon become obsessed with an extremely challenging cold case--the disappearance five years earlier of Merete Lynggaard, a beautiful, talented, and dedicated up-and-coming politician. Did Merete fall overboard while she was a passenger on a ferry? Did she commit suicide? Or did someone abduct her? If the latter, who would want to hurt this kind and compassionate woman? With the help of his able factotum, Carl emerges from his lethargy and makes up his mind that he will find out what really happened to Merete.

"The Keeper of Lost Causes" is an addictive read. Who can resist flawed heroes who underachieve until they find some reason to put forth their best effort? Carl is an excellent investigator when he is not busy wallowing in self-pity or having panic attacks. Adler-Olsen uses flashbacks effectively to recount Merete's torturous ordeal. She shows amazing spunk and resourcefulness as she squares off against villains readers will love to hate; they are sadistic, vengeful, and remorseless fiends who enjoy inflicting agony on their helpless victim. It is entertaining to observe Assad and Carl squabble and fuss like kindergarten children (Carl does most of the fussing) until the pair eventually learn to work together productively. This is a darkly humorous, poignant, twisty, and engrossing novel that thriller fans will eagerly embrace.
I bought a paperback edition of this book in 2011 and never read it - the book always sunk to the bottom of my pile. When I recently read a very favorable comment about author Adler-Olsen I thought I'd give the series a try and finally read the first, "Keeper of Lost Causes" KLC. (Couldn't find the #$%^@* paperback, bought the version). It was worth the investment! There are currently seven books in the series. All of them are well rated (for the Analytics amongst you be sure to read my last para.)

In one of the early chapters, Danish police detective, irascible Carl Morck, and two fellow officers are shot while investigating a homicide. Carl's recovery is painful; one of his colleagues is dead, the other severely disabled. Upon his return to duty, Carl is promoted - he is named head of the new, one man Dept. Q. His office is in the (unoccupied, unfurnished, uneverything) basement of police headquarters. Carl's been around more than a few years and before too long he has some budget dollars; he's even been assigned support, a walk-in-off-the-street named Assad. Their mission - cold cases. Their orders - prioritize the files and pick one to start with. There first case will be the five year old kidnapping of a young and up and coming attractive political leader; her body has never been found.

And the case begins. And here's where I got lost a bit. Do yourself a favor and note the characters' names, especially those that had contact with the victim. The devil is in the details here. KLC is an excellent story, well paced, good tensions, nice turns here and there, and a rather novel imprisonment scheme - you'll learn more about Bernoulli's principle than even Bernoulli wanted to know. But it's always great to learn something new in a crime fiction novel, right? For those of you that don't have a Masters in Physics, no worries, you can skim occasional yawny paragraphs and still not miss a heartbeat (pun). The ending is a tad melodramatic but that's only a minor blip in my book.

Perhaps you are thinking "No, not another gloomy, wintry, depressing Scandinavian mystery". No, absolutely not. The entire story has a bit of a light tone, lots of smile moments, and at least one laugh-out-loud. Why? Assad. Yes, Assad, perhaps one of the great sidekicks of all times. As a matter of fact I will read more books in this series because of Assad. He ranks with the greats - Siobhan Clark, Dr. Watson, Sam Ketchum, Nellie Fox, Oreo cream filling. No, I'm not going to give examples. You have to read him in context. You will like Assad very much.

I have a lot of confidence that this is a very good series; I expect to read a number of the remaining books, likely all of them, but we'll see. Take a look at 's rankings and the number of reviews for each. KLC has 955 reviews and a 4.4 rating (did you know that if you hold your mouse pointer over stars it will show you the decimal rating e.g. 4.4 and the distribution of each star category?) The second book (see fantasticfiction.com for a chrono list) is 4.2 and 587 reviews; I believe it is the lowest rated and 4.2 is very good, so the quality of the series is very even.. The third book is 4.5 with 477 reviews; the three remaining books which have been released for at least a year have between 400 and 450 reviews and comparable ratings as above. Conclusion - even though there is the usual dropoff after the very first in the series, the subsequent reviews are high in volume for crime fiction and the ratings are very stable. "If it walks like a winner, and talks like a winner..."
Some aspects are predictable but it's better then most stories, or so she told me. 1 2 3 4 5 more words