The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

One of those, in which the main pieces fall into place, is gasp-inducing. The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsens Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl Mrck, who used to be a. That presumption unravels as Morck and Assad pull at its threads, and as we see a series of flashbacks that run parallel to the investigation. Though the setup juggles clichés, it subverts several of them once the partners take their first case: that of Merete (Sonja Richter), a politician who disappeared in a presumed suicide.

Morck’s got still more problems, among them a failed marriage and a rainy Denmark that’s bursting with colors, most of them gray. There, he meets Assad (Fares Fares), his new and pleasant partner who brews undrinkable coffee. After a stakeout ignited a brutal moment of violence, he’s been busted down to Department Q, a basement office that handles cold cases. But I won’t say whether this angry cop finally grins, nor will I supply any other spoilers about this expertly plotted Nordic noir.Īdmittedly, Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) has cause for his surliness. So bad that by the end of “The Keeper of Lost Causes,” you may fear that his stone face will split down the center if he forces himself to smile. JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN NEWS At first the prisoner scratches at the walls until her fingers bleed. Here are reviews of the other films in the trilogy, “The Absent One” and “A Conspiracy of Faith.”ĭetective Carl Morck has one mood, and boy, it’s bad. This pitch-black series, with its brooding protagonist, may draw comparisons with “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” but consider this: The stories are even sharper. The film adaptations of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Nordic crime novels were a hit in Denmark, and now all three, known as “The Department Q Trilogy,” are being released on Friday in the United States.

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen