Book eight in the Department Q series brings some storylines to an end. Rose is back and we finally found out about Assad's background and thus, this book is about terrorism. This is a very personal story for Assad and we see a new side to his character. I'm not partial to terrorist plots but in this situation, I didn't mind and found that I can enjoy this type of story; A page-turning book. But on the homefront, Rose and Gordon deal with a young man who calls in threatening mass violence. This plotline was my favourite of the two and Carl had a part in both. Rose isn't my favourite character but it sure is nice to have her back on the team. Only two more books are projected in the series. ( )

There's often a point in a successful series where it seems the author feels the audience's interest must extend to absolutely everything they have to say. Or to put it another way, this book is easily 100 pages too long for the story. Not enough depth to the characters or the plot to justify the seriousness of the tone. It was fine I guess, but not better than fine. ( )

4 1/2 stars, rounded down.

This was the usual mix of dark humor and mystery, with the usual zany characters, including a lot about Assad and his background and family. He might be my favorite character, so I enjoyed the book, but there was one aspect that I'm too crazy about that kept it from being perfect. It wasn't anything terrible, just a distraction.

The main story in this book has to do with Assad and his background which has been a bit of a mystery to us and Department Q for the entire series. He just showed up one day, with a mop and bucket, informing them that he works there now. He wasn't an investigator or anything, but he helped out and always seemed to be on top of things. Here, we find out the hows and whys.

There was plenty of excitement throughout the book, so it never gets boring. Also, there was some romance, but it didn't really take up much space. ( )

I'm so glad that I finally made time to read the print version of [a:Jussi Adler-Olsen|1734716|Jussi Adler-Olsen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1411461376p2/1734716.jpg]'s latest Department Q novel (which I received in a giveaway). I've been a fan of this series since it started, and this is one of my favorite volumes.

Adler-Olsen puts a special twist on the Nordic noir genre by including some quirky characters and plenty of snappy dialog. In other words, it's not unrelieved darkness. Of course, since it IS still Nordic noir, those quirky characters typically have a deeply buried grim background. Adler-Olsen uses these vulnerabilities as opportunities for the characters to show warmth to one another as their friendships and effective working relationships develop over the series.

In [b:Victim 2117|50214704|Victim 2117 (Department Q, #8)|Jussi Adler-Olsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563400587l/50214704._SX50_SY75_.jpg|69415270], Adler-Olsen takes a good hard look at one of the most troubling issues of our age, the seemingly endless military violence plaguing the Middle East and the resulting immigrant tragedies. He smoothly blends together multiple elements of this theme, which rests on the backstory of one of the continuing characters, as he drives it forward toward a page-turner of a conclusion. There is a secondary, unrelated plot built around another contemporary phenomenon, alienated young men with a desire to lash out at society with guns or bombs or other weapons.

And in the background, a few ongoing themes related to Carl Morck, the head of Department Q and principal character in the series, are kept bubbling on the back burner. They aren't about to boil over, but they're not going cold either. I'm well primed for the next volume.

I've been waffling on the right rating for this, but using my guideline of comparison with other books in the same genre, I've decided on 5 stars based on the facts that (a) it's a Nordic noir with a not altogether bleak view of the world, and (b) I couldn't put it down.



( )

Wow, lots going on, another really good one by Adler-Olsen. It starts off with a few odd, tenuous threads but then those threads quickly come together to start forming the whole story. And what a story.

It had been more than two years since I read the previous book in the Department Q series (The Scarred Woman) so it took a whole lot of remembering who was who and what their story was before I started getting into it. I actually didn't care for a lot of the backstory because I found it quite depressing. And while I thought the series was your typical good old crime / murder mystery this one was a full-on thriller. (So-so ironic since I had previously finished a so-called "thriller," a book that was touted as a thriller but was about as shockingly dull and boring and non-thrilling as possible.) Anyway, wow, what a story or more properly stories. All you really need to know is that Department Q still rocks! I may have gifted this one a ½ star, but DANG! that was a superb ending. ( )