That is a lot of cases to tie together into a reasonable narrative, but the idea of this many women involved would surely be a record-breaker internationally and historically. My capacity for suspension of disbelief feels bruised. Added to that, while I mostly believe the author is poking at prejudices and stereotypes, this whole plotline about benefits abuse could use some balance. ( )

This is a top class psychological thriller. This writer and this series just keeps getting better. ( )

Denmark's welfare system is admirable, but this is one example where it is not working as intended. Some young women resent the social worker they must deal with in an attempt to get continued handouts and push her to retaliation. Rose's mental health problem has escalated to dire straits. Her story is tangled in with another case but Carl and Assad manage to sort out all the overlapping details. There is not as much humour in this one, while some perceptive lines from Assad make Carl wonder just where he came from. Another Department Q winner. ( )

Great crime thriller that takes twists and turns. Department Q in Copenhagen police HQ is where cold crimes are investigated. But an old case keeps leading those in department Q to current cases and it can't really be helped that they get involved. Assad and Carl try to solve the several involved cases while trying to help their colleague Rose survive. ( )

This was a pretty complicated story with the team working on about 5 different cases, not all of them cold cases. They were all intertwined in some way or another, which I prefer. I've read books with more than one unrelated cases, and I don't like it - I usually assume everything that happens in a story is somehow relevant. But this had so much going on that it was a little hard to keep up with who was who.

There was a lot of dark humor in this one, and a lot of wacky characters. Rose was her usual wacky self, although no so funny in this one as previous stories. Then there were some young women on welfare that were unable to understand why they should do any work to pay for their stylish clothes, and should be supported by the government until they found a rich man. One of them even hated her mother and grandmother who helped support her. Another kept getting pregnant to avoid work, and then let them take the baby away, without caring at all. They resented their case worker for wanting them to work, and made fun of her for not being stylish. They picked the wrong woman to ridicule. But then, they made a lot of bad decisions in this book, as did some of the others. I found it hard to sympathize with any of the girls when things went badly for them.

The story never got boring with so much happening, and of course, Dept Q figured it all out in the end, tying together all the cases.

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