The Scarred Woman

What a miserable beginning - women and girls being horrible to each other, a Nazi grandfather, and, worst of all - Rose's complete collapse. Having been hypnotized in the previous novel, she does not return to Department Q, causing devastation to Carl, Gordon, and Assad. We learn much more about her miserable childhood and those of the girls who have the worst imaginable social worker. There's an awful crime spree and Carl has to deal with being followed by a reality TV host. On the plus side, there's the return of a favorite boss, and Hardy continues to improve. The ending is very touching. I hope it's not the last of Department Q - we need to know the background of the mysterious Assad, and the denouement of Carl's romantic life.

ussi Adler-Olsen's "The Scarred Woman," translated capably from the Danish by William Frost, is the story of females in crisis. One has had a break with reality. Another decides to shed her staid public persona and punish slothful young ladies who sponge off hard-working taxpayers. A third manipulates her friends into helping her commit a crime. Others who appear in this complicated suspense novel have been keeping sinister secrets for years. Little do they suspect that the truth has a way of emerging at the most inconvenient times.

Danish detective Carl Mørck is still in his basement office, running Department Q with his assistant, the mysterious, intelligent, and good-natured Assad. Rose Knudsen, whom Carl and Assad have long valued show more for her organizational skills and insight, is not well, and her future appears uncertain. As a result of her late father's vicious bullying, she has low self-esteem and major mental health issues. Also in need of psychiatric intervention is Anne-Line Svendsen, a miserable and lonely social services administrator who is burned out after years of dealing with shiftless, selfish, and ungrateful clients.

The saving grace of "The Scarred Woman," is the inimitable Carl Mørck, a savvy detective who does not suffer fools gladly, but is compassionate and generous towards his friends. Carl tangles with arrogant higher-ups who want to shut down his department, and tries to evade the irritating producer of a television reality show. "The Scarred Woman" has drama, grim humor, pathos, and a high body count. In spite of occasional lighthearted passages, this is a dispiriting portrayal of grasping, arrogant, and vengeful individuals who are devoid of empathy and lack a moral compass. Carl, Assad, and their colleague, Gordon Taylor, do everything in their power to help Rose recover. In addition, they work tirelessly to solve a series of puzzling cases. Readers who are initially confused by events that seem unrelated will be enlightened when all the disparate threads come together in the action-packed finale. show less

This is the kind of police procedural/murder mystery I love so well and possibly the best book in the "Department Q" series.

A case worker becomes filled with rage when day after day, year after year, she sits and listens to young women beg for government hand outs while also refusing to work for a living, only being interested in looking beautiful and being well dressed. She begins to plot their deaths, at first just in theory, and then later in reality. I have to wonder, do we all have a bit of the "bad seed" in us? What does it take to nourish it to the extent we lose our humanity?

Quote from the book: "She came out of the room with a large canvas bag over her shoulder and continued directly toward the entrance. A completely ordinary, show more frumpy woman with uncombed hair and no charisma. The type of woman you could walk past on the street without knowing if it was a man or a woman, or whether you had even seen her at all."

This group of detectives also has to deal with the mental collapse of a beloved colleague who's story blends in well with the above murders. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! show less

THE SCARRED WOMAN is book seven in the Department Q series. This installment finds Department Q detective, Carl Morck, leading up one of his toughest cases yet. The department specializes in cold cases, but this time around it looks like this players in this case are still active and linked to additional, current murders in Copenhagen. In the midst of trying to solve multiple cases together without stepping on the toes of other police departments, Carl and his team must also dive into the troubled life of one of their own.

The novel launches with the discovery of an elderly woman found in a local Copenhagen park that looks eerily similar to a cold case Department Q has in it's backlog, but an outright connection is lacking. show more Simultaneously across town it appears that young women are being hunted by a hit-and-run killer. Department Q must work against an overwhelming amount of pressure being brought upon them to deliver results or see their department shut down. They'll have to solve this mystery one member short, as Rose has suffered an extreme breakdown, which leaves her unable to assist the team. As the time ticks away to solve the cases in Copenhagen, Rose goes missing and it appears Carl, Assad, and Gordon will also need to save Rose from her past, which is shrouded in a terrible crime. Can Department Q put a killer behind bars and save a co-worker before it's too late?

Jussi Adler-Olsen delivers a masterpiece of mystery and intrigue in THE SCARRED WOMAN. Despite entering in to the series in book seven, I only felt mildly confused about some character's relationships while reading this novel. There are a large number of characters who at first seem unrelated to one another, but ultimately end up being more connected than anyone could have guessed. I felt the novel had a rocky start for me with the introduction of a few characters who I could not quite grasp their importance. Continuing through the novel it was easier to understand why the initial backstory was needed, but I think it might be better placed slightly later in the novel instead of being the opening content.

At the end of the novel I had fallen in love with Department Q. Carl, Assad, Gordon, and Rose each have such unique personalities and perspectives that I couldn't help but want to know more about each of them. I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for the entire series, so I'll definitely be diving into the first installment, THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES, sometime soon. If you're looking for multiple unique storylines with characters you can connect to, THE SCARRED WOMAN should be your next read!

Thank you to Jussi Adler-Olsen and Dutton Books for providing me a free copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. show less

The Scarred Woman is the latest (#7) in Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series.

Department Q is the division of the Copenhagen P.D. dedicated to the resolution of cold cases. The staff is not large - it's only Detective Carl Mørck and his assistants Assad and Rose. The characters and their interplay are the main reason I am so enamoured of this series. But the cases Adler-Olsen comes up with run a close second.

In The Scarred Woman, the body of a woman is found dead in a park. But aspects of the case are similar to an unsolved case from ten years back. And so the new case is assigned to Department Q. Young women are also being targeted in Copenhagen and Carl and Assad insinuate themselves into this case as well. As always, the threat of show more dismantling the 'Q' is there if the cases are not solved. Carl has a running feud with the higher ups and I always enjoy the sparring between them.

Adler-Olsen's dialogue is infused with a wicked sense of humour. The back and forth between Carl and Assad is a source of great amusement for me - especially Assad's camel analogies. Carl's inner dialogue is wickedly wry.

These two latest cases are wonderfully different. The young women case presents an opportunity for some social commentary - wonderfully shaped and presented with skewed thought processes and dialogue. The reader is privy to three sides of the story - from the police, the perpetrator and victims.

The mystery of Assad continues as Adler-Olsen continues to slowly dole out snippets of information about his past in each book. But it is Rose who takes center stage in this latest. Her troubled past has been alluded to in previous entries, but is fully revealed in The Scarred Woman. Carl's personal life has also moved along in each book. The supporting characters in his life are just as appealing - especially Hardy. And I've taken a shine to Gordon, the newer fourth member of the 'Q' team.

I love this series - the complex, unusual cases, but especially the 'left of center' cast. I will be eagerly awaiting book nine. And if you like the sounds of this series, I would suggest starting with the first book - The Keeper of Lost Causes. show less

This seventh installment of the adventures of Department Q, the cold case division in Copenhagen’s police homicide department, is somewhat of a zany, noirish crime novel featuring a bunch of very bad women trying to kill one another. Their actions also seemed tied to an old, cold case, pitting Department Q and its investigation against the current crimes department.

There is not so much emphasis in this book on Carl Mørck, the head (in name, at least) of Department Q, nor of his assistant Assad, but much more focus on the psychological tribulations of his so-much-more-than-a secretary Rose. Interactions among the three of them, who have worked together now for seven years, are usually the highlight of the books, but in this story, we show more don’t get much of them together.

Instead, we learn a great deal about Rose’s background, which turns out to have been pretty horrific. In addition, Rose accidentally gets caught up in the murder round-robin of the four “bad” protagonists. It is questionable whether she can come out of it alive.

Discussion: I am a big fan of the Detective Carl Mørck series but this one is not my favorite. It is a bit too Coen-Brothers-ish for me. On the other hand, that aspect is exactly what Jim, who also read this, found to be most appealing about the book. The lead-up to the dénouement had a good amount of tension and excitement, but this positive was offset for me by some plot elements that seemed quite unrealistic. (Or at least, I hope so.)

Evaluation: I didn't think this thriller had the quality of some of the earlier books, but I still like the characters enough to have enjoyed “visiting” with them again, and to look forward to seeing how the developments in this story "continue" down the road. show less

The Q team in the basement of police headquarters is busy with many cases, most of them brutal. Rose, one of Carl's assistants suffers a mental health meltdown which has the team and Rose's sisters scurrying around trying to help. It takes time to make sense of Rose's notebooks with bizarre and angry statements repeated over and over.

While simultaneously investigating the cold case of Stephanie Gunderson, they learn that a recent murder of an old woman shows a similar pattern. Rigmor Zimmerman's death leads to a comprehensive investigation into her family's hidden and despicable history, and its reach into current family members.

But soon an astonishing case of a series of hit and run accidents occur which hurt and then kill young show more women, a night club is robbed and a woman shot. Reads like a 'looney tune' adventure story of how the police, mostly the colleagues Carl doesn't like, screw up, miss evidence, forget to document stuff, and so on. Clearly Carl cannot abide time-wasting, bureacratic threats he gets from the powers above especially when they get his team's success rate totally wrong.

So while the shenanigans can be annoying, the plot, characters, dialog and dark humor are engaging. show less