The Keeper of Lost Causes (Department Q Series #1)

by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Lisa Hartford (Translator)

Overview

The first book in New York Times bestsellerJussi Adler-Olsen's electrifying Department Q series.

The #1 international bestseller from Jussi Adler-Olsen, author of The Absent One—perfect for fans of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

Carl Mørck used to be one of Copenhagen’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of Copenhagen’s coldest cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead … yet.

Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780452297906
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/31/2012
Series:	Department Q Series , #1
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	21,395
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jussi Adler-Olsen lives in Denmark.

Read an Excerpt

She was going to look after herself. For them she was the woman in the cage, but she was the one who decided how far apart the bars would be. She would think thoughts that opened out onto the world and kept madness at bay. They would never break her. That's what she decided as she lay there on the floor, her shoulder throbbing fiercely and the swelling around her eye forcing it closed. Someday she would get out of here.

What People are Saying About This

Jydske Vestkysten

"Jussi Adler-Olsen tells his stories as wickedly as Dean Koontz and has his detectives work as hard as Stieg Larsson."

C.J. Box

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

Editorial Reviews

The new ‘it' boy of Nordic Noir.

-The Times (London)

Plan on putting everything else in your life on hold if you pick up this book.

-The Oregonian

Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humor.

-Booklist (starred review)

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

Plan on putting everything else in your life on hold if you pick up this book.” — The Oregonian

“The pages fly by as the twisty puzzle unfolds. Stieg Larsson fans will be delighted.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Far from being just another morose Nordic crime writer, Adler-Olsen creates a detective whose curiosity is as active as his soul is tortured.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humor.” — Booklist (starred review)

“The new ‘it' boy of Nordic Noir.” — The Times (London)

“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, New York Times bestselling author of Cold Wind

From the Publisher

Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humor.

Booklist

The new ‘it' boy of Nordic Noir.

The Times (London)

Plan on putting everything else in your life on hold if you pick up this book.

The Oregonian

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

“Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humor.”

Booklist (starred review)

Even attentive American mystery readers won't recognize the name of this book's author. Though a relative newcomer to the genre, Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark's most celebrated crime writer and a bestselling author in several European countries. Among other prizes, he has won the prestigious Glass Key Award, thus joining a roster of winners that includes Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell. The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces readers to Adler-Olsen's Department Q series and Carl Mørck, its damaged, yet brilliant chief protagonist. The department to which Mørck has been "promoted" is actually a place of solitary exile. To even his surprise, he finds one cold homicide case on his docket that captures his interest. (P.S. The husband and wife translators of this book have a proven track record: They collaborated on Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.)

"Gripping storytelling."

The Guardian

"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

"Gripping storytelling."

-The Guardian

"Jussi Adler-Olsen tells his stories as wickedly as Dean Koontz and has his detectives work as hard as Stieg Larsson."

-Jydske Vestkysten (Denmark)

"This novel is for every Scandinavian crime fiction fan a must-read!"

-Hannoversche Allgemeine (Germany)

"As impressive as it is unnerving."

-The Independent

"An unusually fine and extremely fascinating thriller, which will keep you breathless till the very last page."

-politiken.dk

"This novel is for every Scandinavian crime fiction fan a must-read!"

Hannoversche Allgemeine (Germany)

"As impressive as it is unnerving."

The Independent

"An unusually fine and extremely fascinating thriller, which will keep you breathless till the very last page."

politiken.dk

"Jussi Adler-Olsen tells his stories as wickedly as Dean Koontz and has his detectives work as hard as Stieg Larsson."

Jydske Vestkysten

Following the success of other Scandinavian authors, Denmark's best-selling crime writer makes his American debut with this first novel in the Glass Key Award-winning Department Q series. Department Q is a new section of the Copenhagen Police, dedicated to resolving Denmark's most notorious unsolved crimes. A political solution to a bureaucratic problem, Department Q is further hampered by its only detective, Carl Mørck, who has lost his friends, his health, and his spirit in a recent shooting. His first case is to investigate the disappearance of a popular politician. After five years, everyone assumes she is dead, but Mørck and his assistant, Assad, who has his own political past to protect, begin to unravel her secrets. VERDICT Far from being just another morose Nordic crime writer, Adler-Olsen creates a detective whose curiosity is as active as his soul is tortured. The villain is a monster and the crime horrendous, but readers will root for the victim and for the belabored Department Q. This absorbing psychological thriller is recommended not only for fans of Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, and Stieg Larsson but for true crime aficionados who might like to try fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 2/14/11.]—Cathy Lantz, Morton Coll. Lib., Cicero, IL

Library Journal

Great news for fans who feared that the formula that shot Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy to the top of international bestseller lists couldn't be cloned: a big, leisurely Scandinavian thriller with dark hints of conspiracy, clunky descriptions, dozens of plot complications and the world's most unnuanced villains.

Five years after Danish stateswoman Merete Lynggaard vanished without a trace from a ferry crossing, Carl Mørck takes it upon himself to reopen the case. Despite the possible presence of an eyewitness, Merete's unreachably brain-damaged younger brother Uffe, the mystery has long been dismissed as unsolvable by the Copenhagen police, who think Merete must simply have slipped off the boat for reasons unknown. But Carl's in an unusually strong position to pick it up again. Banished to Department Q, his own personal cold-case unit, after a shooting left one of his best friends dead, another paralyzed and Carl himself with an incapacitating case of survivor's guilt and rage, he can choose his cases, control his budget and call on police departments throughout Denmark for help. And he'll need plenty of help, because the disappearance of Merete, who against all odds is still alive, held captive by a sociopathic family mad for revenge against the inoffensive minister, is only one of the problems he'll face. His colleagues produce painful new leads on the shooting that annihilated his own team; he's determined to put the moves on police crisis counselor Mona Ibsen, whose agenda emphatically doesn't include his romantic overtures; and he can't help growing suspicious of his remarkably talented new assistant, especially since he bears the name Hafez al-Assad. The trail to the truth is filled with authentically tedious loose ends and dead ends; the climactic confrontation with the monstrous malefactors is cathartically violent; and the final scene is unexpectedly touching.

The English-language success of Adler-Olsen's synthetic but sharply calculated debut, already a publishing phenomenon in Germany, Austria and its native Denmark, seems so assured that resistance would be futile.

Kirkus Reviews