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The Keeper of Lost Causes: The First Department Q Novel (A Department Q Novel) Paperback – July 31, 2012

by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Author), Lisa Hartford (Translator)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 10,276 ratings
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Get to know the detective in charge of Copenhagen's coldest cases in the first electrifying Department Q mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jussi Adler-Olsen.

Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead...yet.

Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 10
    Department Q
  2. Print length
    416 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Dutton
  5. Publication date
    July 31, 2012
  6. Dimensions
    5.29 x 0.96 x 8.01 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0452297907
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0452297906
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Keeper of Lost Causes

“Plan on putting everything else in your life on hold if you pick up this book.”—The Oregonian

“Of all the fun I've had this year with the Scandinavian canon, The Keeper of Lost Causes is the one I'd be most eager—and reluctant—to loan.”—The Boston Globe

“The pages fly by as the twisty puzzle unfolds. Stieg Larsson fans will be delighted.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Far from being just another morose Nordic crime writer, Adler-Olsen creates a detective whose curiosity is as active as his soul is tortured.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humor.”—Booklist (starred review)

“The new ‘it' boy of Nordic Noir.”—The Times (London)

“The Keeper of Lost Causes is dark, atmospheric, and compelling. Those who loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will devour this book.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box

More Praise for Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series

“If you like the dark humor, wisecracking, and layered betrayals of Raymond Chandler, then read Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series.”—Men's Journal

“A tense, pleasurable read.”—USA Today

“[A] sordid tale...inspired by actual events during a dark period of Danish history. Ah, but there is more, so much more in this frenzied thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review

“This book is not for the faint of heart, but for readers who enjoy dark humor and wisecracking heroes and heroines, you’ll love Department Q.”—Suspense Magazine
 
“It can be hard to distinguish Scandinavian crime writers—there are a lot of them, and their names have consonant clusters and umlauts and all that jazz—but Jussi Adler-Olsen is a name to know. In a crowded genre, Adler-Olsen is an outlier.”—GQ.com 

“Adler-Olsen merges story lines...with ingenious aplomb, effortlessly mixing hilarities with horrors...This crime fiction tour de force could only have been devised by an author who can even turn stomach flu into a belly laugh.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This series has enough twists to captivate contemporary mystery readers and enough substance and background to entertain readers with historical and literary tastes.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“When your series relies on cold cases, it’s not always easy to craft plots that have both historical interest and an air of urgency, but it’s something Adler-Olsen is very good at.”—Booklist

About the Author

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s #1 crime writer and a New York Times bestselling author. His books, including the Department Q series, routinely top the bestseller lists in Europe and have sold more than fifteen million copies around the world. His many prestigious Nordic crime-writing awards include the Glass Key Award, also won by Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, and Peter Høeg.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton; Reprint edition (July 31, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0452297907
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0452297906
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.29 x 0.96 x 8.01 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 10,276 ratings

About the author

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Jussi Adler-Olsen

Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Carl Valdemar Jussi Henry Adler-Olsen (born August 2, 1950) is a Danish author, publisher, editor and entrepreneur. Jussi Adler-Olsen's career is characterised by his great involvement in a wide range of media related activities. In 1984, he made his debut as a non-fiction writer. 1997 saw his debut as a fiction writer. His latest novel is The Boundless (Den Grænseløse) (2014) is the 6th volume in the Department Q series.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Lesekreis (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
10,276 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Er Jwee Chiek 余瑞傑
5.0 out of 5 stars I absolutely love my first crime novel by Danish author Adler-Olsen
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018
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The rare method of torturing the victim was unquestionably the centrepiece of the story. The excellent film version introduced me to the moody detective Carl Mørck, played excellently by Danish actor NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS and prompted me to pick up the book to get deeper into the story. Read it in English and then a second time in Norwegian. It was a tremendously satisfying read from start to finish of this intense police-crook story on vendetta. Certainly not for the faint-heart because it contains excruciating psychological and physical torture that made me squirm. I am quite puzzled with the choice of "Mercy" as the English translated title which is quite meaningless considering the story is all but merciless throughout. Cruel fate had no mercy striking the monsters with immense tragedy in their early lives that shaped them into revengeful blood thirsty monsters. These monsters themselves, in feeding their lust for vendetta, had no mercy for the victims or innocent bystanders. I much prefer the Danish/Norwegian title "Kvinnen i buret" or "The lady in the cage" because it describes the story excellently. The story is of course best read in Danish (or Norwegian as the written form is quite similar) like all books are best enjoyed in their original language. So with  Mercy (Department Q Series Book 1) , familiarity with Danish history, culture, lifestyle, geography and pathos go a long way to fully enjoy the genius of Adler-Olsen. Unfortunately, all translations as in this English version inevitably lose important nuances and many gems relevant in the Danish setting. I absolutely love  Mercy (Department Q Series Book 1) , my first crime novel by Danish author Adler-Olsen who paid great attention to details to give us a plot that was highly intelligent and unique, the characters were winsomely realistic be they the police detectives, the victims or the crooks. Despite the mostly sombre and heavy mood, there were some light moments of humor where Carl Mørck grappled with his dysfunctional marriage and incorrigible stepson wrecking havoc at home. Thankfully Carl gratefully had a reliable rent paying tenant called Morten, who loved opera and freely and lovingly volunteered making comfort food and home making service on a daily basis. Morten's playdo collection, audaciously borrowed without permisjon eventually lent valuable support to Carl in helping to uncover the bad guy in the story. Otherwise, much of the moronic fun were provided by the unlikely partners of Carl Mørck and Assad thrown unexpectedly together, whose backgrounds couldn't be more diverse and polarised, giving us comical confrontations while sussing each other out in the newly formed Department Q. There trust and admiration for each other were eventually forged after their harrowing life and death experience in solving their first case together. More so for Carl whose life was saved by the skin of his teeth when his quick thinking, stoic and resourceful assistant Assad came to his rescue. The special police department was a political initiative endorsed by the Danish parliament to reopen old unsolved cases that had attracted media and public great attention one time before they were unresolved and shelved. To establish credibility and to restore the good standing of the unpopular detective Carl Mørck, who was despised and abhorred by his colleagues, solving the all important first case "Woman in the pressure chamber" cannot be more critical on the line. And what a first case it was. A tale of 1extreme inhuman revenge, meticulously planned over a long period of time to torture the victim for a long five period since her abduction before exacting the most cruel form of execution. Adler-Olsen cleverly segmented his story into two different periods at the beginning before the two segments converged in the end to a nail biting finish. It was an incredible suspenseful, and emotionally beautiful ending of reunion and closure. The reader got so caught up with the characters in the book, that hot tears were shed in the end. Already a big fan of Scandinavian crime novels, I have read Norwegian and Swedish crime fictions by Larsson for his Blomkivst journalist , Nesbø for his alcoholic, insomniac, cheerless, Jim Bean addicted Harry Hole, and Staaleson for the physically abused Aquavit addicted Varg Veum. I love them all, each for their unique heroic and conscientious protagonist trying their utmost to rid the world of evil. Adler-Olsen with his creation or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde "Carl Mørck", is now for me another fantastic Scandinavian crime fiction author, my first from Denmark.
11 people found this helpful
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PlantBirdWoman
4.0 out of 5 stars The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen: A review
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book was recommended to me since I generally like Scandinavian mysteries. It was sitting there in my reading queue, so I thought why not? I'll read you next.

Then I started reading and I groaned because it seemed this was going to be just another moody Scandinavian mystery with a dour, emotionally and psychologically damaged detective with a crazy ex-wife. But I kept reading and soon discovered how wrong my first impression was. This was one funny book!

Well, perhaps I should explain here that the main mystery involves a horrendous crime starting with the kidnapping from a ferry of a young, dynamic, and beautiful Danish politician. Details of her kidnapping and the crimes against her are sprinkled throughout the book, interspersed with the chapters that detail the detectives' efforts to solve her mysterious disappearance, and some of those chapters are very hard to read, particularly if one suffers at all from claustrophobia. Fortunately, the chapters about the detectives are much lighter, some of them laugh-out-loud funny. I found myself frequently chuckling at the interactions between the two main characters.

Jussi Adler-Olsen introduces us to Carl Mørck, a detective with the Copenhagen police. We meet him as he is just recovering from a terrible experience.

As he and two partners were following leads on a case, they were jumped by two gunmen. In a hail of bullets, one partner was killed outright; another was paralyzed and there seems no hope for his recovery; Carl Mørck was shot in the head but escaped with only an interesting scar. His shame and guilt, however, is that he never drew his weapon during the shootout.

Carl is a brilliant and intuitive detective, but he is also a pain in the butt. None of his colleagues wants to work with him, so when his boss gets news that funds have been allocated for a new department, an ideal solution occurs to him: He will assign Mørck to be the head and only member of the new department.

That is Department Q, The Keeper of Lost Causes. The commission of the department will be to reopen cold cases, lost causes, and clear them.

Carl Mørck is not amused by his new assignment. So he sits with stacks of these "dead" cases on his desk and plays games on his computer. Then he learns something about the amount of money that has been appropriated for his department and he demands of his boss, Marcus, that he hire an assistant for him, someone he envisions as a janitor to keep the place clean. He also demands more up-to-date equipment and a car. Marcus gives him everything he asks for just to keep Carl in his basement office and out of his hair.

The "janitor" that Marcus sends him turns out to be much more than that. His name (he says) is Hafez el-Assad. He is a Syrian refugee, a political asylee, who, slowly, during the course of the book unpacks a bewildering package of skills and knowledge.

Who is this man and what is his background? When it comes to detecting, he matches the brilliance of Carl Mørck. Even though he is not supposed to be involved in the investigatory side of the department, he manages to insinuate himself and Mørck gradually learns to depend upon him, even though he is still suspicious of his background.

Assad prods Carl into action on the case files covering his desk, and the first one they pick up is that politician who was kidnapped back in 2002. It is now 2007 and that case is very cold indeed.

As Carl and Assad look at the case file, they realize that it was sloppily done. Things were overlooked or mishandled and slowly they follow every little discrepancy, teasing them out, and looking for a solution to the problem.

Reading the interactions between Carl and Assad was just a delight. They play off each other very well and as their relationship grows and deepens, the humor becomes both drier and broader. I fell in love with charming Assad and even dour Carl and I am eager to learn more about them in future books. I think Jussi Adler-Olsen has created a couple of winners here.
22 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Vivian
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery
Reviewed in Canada on July 2, 2023
Verified Purchase
This Swedish author is an excellent writer. The suspense builds and there is a little bit of humour throughout. The characters are well developed and realistic. And excellent read.
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K8tey33
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute page turner
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2024
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Riveting read-I can't wait to read the next book- the characters were well drawn and I'm intrigued to see more of Assad's background 😀
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Joni Meyer
4.0 out of 5 stars Different and...
Reviewed in Brazil on September 19, 2020
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... full of surprises and unsolved personal misteries.
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Gourav
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply awesome!
Reviewed in India on July 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is the first time that I am reading this book by the author and frankly speaking was totally bowled by the entire plot. The writing, the cliffhangers, the mysteries and the backstories are simply the best. Definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a detective novel with a feel of the real world stories
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Dickky cat
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely great
Reviewed in Japan on October 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
I had watch this ,before I bought but it took time to buy this complete edition having doubts that maybe another kind of stereotype but no I am very wrong I really enjoyed every page turned, Now excuse me I have 6 novel yo read.
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