The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The first one he picks is that of a missing woman, a politician who disappeared five years ago and is presumed dead. He's kind of a mess, so he's promoted to head up a new unit, Department Q, that investigates cold cases. ( )Ĭarl Morck is an outstanding Danish homicide detective who was shot while another comrade died and the third man was paralyzed.

The ending is fairly schmaltzy, not at all what you’d expect from Scandinavian noir fiction.įor a far more engaging and surprising book with some similar plot elements, I would recommend Pierre Lemaitre’s Alex. Surely we can expect at least some intelligence from detectives, even fictional ones.Ĭharacter development is minimal, and quite a bit of potential interest in the lead characters is lost as the author resorts to cliche and easy resolutions.

This is about as boring a cliche as teenagers deciding to blunder around in the dark in slash movies. As with far too many detective novels, Adler-Olsen employs the hackneyed plot device of having his allegedly smart detective decide to confront the bad guys on their turf, with neither weapons, nor backup. Morck’s investigation is mostly progressed by insights from his janitor assistant, which doesn’t recommend him much as a detective. What follows is a pretty straightforward police procedural with very few surprises. Morck decides to investigate the disappearance five years ago of politician Merete Lynggaard as his first case. Carl Morck, the hero of The Keeper of Lost Causes is assigned by his boss to head the new Department Q, essentially as a means of getting rid of him.

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen