The Absent One
Jussi Adler-Olsen
book reviews:
· general fiction
· chick lit/romance
· sci-fi/fantasy
· graphic novels
· nonfiction
· audio books

Click here for the curledup.com RSS Feed

· author interviews
· children's books @
   curledupkids.com
· DVD reviews @
   curledupdvd.com

newsletter
win books
buy online
links

home

for authors
& publishers


for reviewers

click here to learn more




Buy *The Absent One* by Jussi Adler-Olsenonline

The Absent One
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Plume
Paperback
432 pages
May 2013
rated 5 of 5 possible stars

buy this book now or browse millions of other great products at amazon.com
previous reviewnext review

Click here to read reviewer Steven Rosen's take on The Absent One.

Against all odds, Detective Carl Morck of the Copenhagen Police Department has made a success of Department Q. When he returned from sick leave a year ago, the force wasn’t sure what to do with him. He was judged fit to return to service, but his seeing his partner killed in front of him and his oldest friend completely paralyzed didn’t leave the administration brimming with confidence about Morck’s abilities to work. A brilliant bureaucratic idea created Department Q for Morck. He was assigned to the basement, there to work on the coldest of cold cases and leave the administration alone. Against all odds, Morck and his Syrian assistant, a janitor named Hafez Assad, solved one of the most mysterious cold cases in the department’s history. Now Morck is untouchable with all the public praise his work has garnered.

He is so successful that he returns from his summer vacation to find that his basement empire has been enlarged with the addition of Rose Knudsen. Her dream was to be a policewoman, but failing the driving test meant that couldn’t happen. She has been assigned to Morck to help him, and he is dismayed by the realization that just sitting and doing nothing is getting more problematic as he gets more publicity and assistants. Against his inclination, he starts another case.

The new case is a strange one. Two students, brother and sister, were killed twenty years ago. The suspects were a group of boarding students from a prestigious academy. There was no real evidence, and the case went unsolved for nine years. Suddenly, after almost a decade, one of the group had come in and confessed and was currently serving time. The others in the group went their separate ways, using their wealth and influence to become leaders in Danish businesses. Did the man in jail really commit the crime by himself as he claimed, or did the group buy him off? Who put the case on Carl’s desk, and why has it surfaced again after all these years? And where is the absent one, Kimmie? Kimmie was the only female in the group but, opposed to the success of the men, has spent years living on the streets as a homeless vagrant. What drove Kimmie to the streets, and where is she now? Was the student murder the group’s only crime or just the tip of the iceberg?

Readers who enjoyed Adler-Olsen’s first book, The Keeper Of Lost Causes, will be glad to visit again with Morck. Morck’s gritty determination to follow through and his ability to solve cases almost against his will are intriguing. The plot of the case is complicated and intricately connected as Morck attempts to determine why such successful men fear no one but the absent one. This book is recommended for mystery readers.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Sandie Kirkland, 2012

buy *The Absent One* online
click here for more info
Click here to learn more about this month's sponsor!


fiction · sf/f · comic books · nonfiction · audio
newsletter · free book contest · buy books online
review index · links · · authors & publishers
reviewers

site by ELBO Computing Resources, Inc.