Will I love The Keeper of Lost Causes?

After watching (and loving) the TV series Department Q, I read the book it is based on, The Keeper of Lost Causes (book 1 in a 10-book series). I found it a bit rough, but liked it well enough that I'll definitely read book two. A gripping, original plot with twists galore.

I have to confess that I discovered these books after watching the TV series Department Q. As soon as I saw "Based on the books by Jussi Adler-Olsen," I knew I had to read them.

The books differ significantly from the TV show. For one thing, they are set in Copenhagen, not Scotland. But the dark humour and clever plots are still the same. In this, the first of the series, Carl Morck—who is recovering from an incident where two of his colleagues were shot—is made the head of Department Q, looking into cold cases.

His first case is… show more.

The effect of Scandinavian crime writing has been far-reaching and, to my mind, one aspect that has helped its growth has been the addition of psychological aspects in the characters and—in a very particular sense—the response to this from the reader. I feel I’ve learned more of this deeper level from the writings of Adler-Olsen, particularly his Department Q novels with their lead, Detective Carl Mørck (a deeply flawed man, although written without a cliché in sight). Adler-Olsen has said the reader must have the opportunity to create their own images from his not-very detailed descriptions, which he calls the… show more.

I was particularly taken with this first Department Q novel because of the intensity of the characters. They inhabit a basement office as the red-headed stepchildren of the police department in Copenhagen. The head of the group is a gruff, jaded cop named Carl Morck. He gets assigned an assistant, a Muslim immigrant named Assad, who turns out to be more than the paper pusher he was hired to be. Together, they look into a cold case involving the murder of two young people, covered by a complex conspiracy of the rich and powerful. They form a powerful team, each… show more.

My favorite Danish mystery writer is Jussi Adler-Olsen, author of the incomparable Department Q novels. Department Q is where Copenhagen’s cold cases live, and it is wonderfully weird Detective Carl Morck’s job to thaw them out. He has help: a fascinating sidekick named Assad, a Syrian immigrant with a backpack of mysterious skills and a hidden past. I would call these books Scandinavian lite or Nordic noir because they are fun. I love grumpy sleuths with soft hearts, sidekicks that end up saving their bosses in crazy ways, and plots that are never what they seem.