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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