Detective Carl Mørck is the head of Department Q, a cold case squad that
works out of the dingy basement of a Copenhagen, Denmark police
station. Carl's unit consists of himself and three others, Assad, Rose,
and Gordon. 
-
Assad, originally from Syria, is Carl's partner. He's a smart,
congenial fellow with an oddly sophisticated skill set.....but he
doesn't talk about his mysterious background. (I'm guessing secret
police.)
-
Rose, an office manager/investigator, is a troubled woman who exhibits
multiple personalities. Her problems come to a head in this book. 
-
Gordon is relatively new to the cold case squad and excels at
background searches and other computer work. He has a crush on Rose. 
*****
The story:
When Department Q is threatened with budget cuts - or even closure -
because of low solve rates Carl is furious. After all, his squad has
successfully closed 65 percent of their cases. Turns out the alleged
poor statistics are due to a clerical error, but a fire has been lit
under Carl. Against the orders of his boss - Head of Homicide Lars Bjørn
- Carl decides to investigate a CURRENT case.
An elderly woman
named Rigmor Zimmermann was killed by a blow to the head and robbed of
10,000 kroner. Oddly enough, the Zimmermann murder resembles a cold case
from a decade ago, when a schoolteacher called Stephanie Gundersen was
killed in a similar fashion. Carl and his cohorts get on the job,
looking for a connection between Zimmermann and Gundersen, and
investigating who might have wanted them dead.
Meanwhile, the
Head of Homicide has his own plans to keep the kroner flowing into the
police station. Lars Bjørn arranges for Olaf Borg-Pedersen - host of a
true crime television show - to film Carl and his team while they work.
Carl wants no part of this publicity, and his efforts to evade and elude
Pedersen provide some comic relief in the book.
As Department Q
looks into the Zimmermann/Gundersen homicides, a handful of women in
Copenhagen are making their own nefarious plans. Anne-Line Svendsen
(Anneli), a case worker for Danish social services, is fed up with the
useless young women - beautifully dressed with perfect hair and make-up -
who parade through her office on a regular basis. 
The
fashionistas have myriad excuses for not working, and invariably demand
handouts and favors. On top of that, Anneli overhears several of these
layabouts making fun of her.
When Anneli gets breast cancer,
it's the final straw. Since she might die soon anyway, Anneli resolves
to kill women who abuse the Danish welfare system, especially three
young ladies named Michelle, Denise, and Jazmine....as well as others
who get on her nerves. 
Anneli
decides on 'hit and run' as her modus operandi, and - after carefully
consulting the internet - practices stealing cars, staking out her
victims, making a getaway, and so on. When she's ready, Anneli starts
mowing down her good-for-nothing clients. I can't say more because of
spoilers.
For their part, Michelle, Denise and Jazmine - who
always need money - decide to embark on their own life of crime. They've
heard that Anneli won a huge lottery some time back (she didn't), and -
ironically - decide to kill the social worker and steal her jackpot.
Before that, though, the trio rob a nightclub that employs Michelle's
boyfriend as a bouncer.....and this leads to plenty of drama, including a
death and an abduction. 
While
all this is going on, Department Q's Rose Knudson is having a mental
breakdown. She comes to work late, neglects her job, shouts at Carl,
drinks too much, writes all over her apartment walls, etc. Pressured by
her sisters, Rose enters a mental health facility. 
The
Knudson sisters tell Carl that Rose was psychologically abused by their
father for years; that Rose saw her dad killed in a horrific industrial
accident; and that Rose has been keeping journals since she was a
child. Wanting to help his colleague, Carl reads the journals....which
turn out to have VERY odd entries. Department Q spends a lot of time
analyzing Rose's diaries, which seriously delays their other work. (The
journal rigmarole gets a bit boring, IMO, and takes up too much of the
book).
All these plot threads slowly and cleverly come
together..... and it's fun to see each puzzle piece click into place.
Saying more would ruin the fun for readers.
As usual with this
series, we get a peek at Carl's personal life. Carl shares his home with
a former partner named Hardy who - injured in the line of duty - is now
a quadriplegic. Carl moons over the police psychologist, Mona, whom he
once dated. And Carl decides to find out about the factory 'mishap' that
killed Rose's obnoxious father.
The novel is entertaining, with
an interesting array of characters and a nicely wrought plot. Highly
recommended to mystery fans.
Though this is book seven of the series, it can be read as a standalone.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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