The Keeper of Lost Causes

I've read MERCY (aka THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES) by Jussi Adler-Olsen twice now and finally I think I've got it the review straight in my head.

Why twice? The first time I read this book was right in the middle of a series of releases based around the woman locked in the basement scenario, and frankly, I was pissed off. Even though I really felt that this gross generalisation wasn't fair in the case of MERCY, this scenario had annoyed me so badly, objectiveness had become a real problem. So why reread and why now? Well a movie came out, and there were a lot more books in the Department Q series that I've been keen to try so a little reconsideration was required.

Based around the concept of cold cases, Carl Mørck is back with the show more Copenhagen Police Department, after six months sick leave recovering from being shot on duty. His colleague wasn't so lucky, still in hospital, paralysed and suffering.

Mørck has always been a difficult person to get on with and because of that the opportunity is taken to sideline him into “Department Q” the cold case unit. In the basement, where hopefully the lack of resources, and one suspects a general lack of oxygen / visibility get through to Mørck that he's not the most popular person. Which seems to be working on one level as he grudgingly shows up and spends most of his time solving Sudoko puzzles and playing games with the powers that be. Unfortunately one game – his demand for an assistant means he's lumbered with Hafez el-Assad, man who very much wants to be an investigator and doesn't agree that Department Q is the pits. When he finds something in the file on the disappearance of politician Merete Lynggaard, Mørck finds himself actually investigating something.

Alternating the viewpoints between the investigation and Lynnggaard in captivity brings an immediacy to the search. Whilst investigators have no idea if she is alive or dead, the reader knows she is, knows her state of mind, and knows her abductors are nearby.

With a clearer viewpoint of this concept there are obvious differences here – Lynggaard isn't being held as a sex slave or as a plaything of a nutter, but the reason she is being held isn't clear. And the cruelty and dispassionate behaviour of her abductors is staggering, uncomfortably so. As is the distress and the worry that everyone has for the brother she's left out in the real world. Badly equipped to handle it, he has an acquired brain injury as a result of the car accident that killed their parents when they were children. His suffering is as palpable as hers.

Aside from the difference that's now obvious – that this isn't an opportunistic tale of a woman in a basement after all, and add in the great characters of the investigators and this is really a strong opening book. The grumpiness of Mørck and the intelligence and compassion of Assad make them a great team. Having said that, grumpiness isn't the defining quality of Mørck when you're paying attention – there's a lot more to this story than greets the initial eye.

I have no explanation at all as to why I didn't see that the first time around, but I'm profoundly relieved that I had the sense to leave MERCY in the pile – knowing there was something wrong with my initial reaction but not able to articulate it.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-mercy-jussi-adler-olsen show less

Okay, I will admit right at the start that I have a hard time with stories that include graphic descriptions of physical torture committed by twisted creatures of evil. I can no longer watch an entire episode of Criminal Minds even though I have enjoyed some of the shows in the past. Perhaps as I age I become too aware that sick minds do exist and that they have control over bodies that do unspeakably evil things to others. It is not all fiction. Sadly.

That said, The Keeper of Lost Causes hooked me at the first page. Heck, the first sentence of the Prologue did it:

"She scratched her fingertips on the smooth walls until they bled, and pounded her fists on the thick panes until she could no longer feel her hands."

“She” is Merete show more Lynggaard, a member of the Danish legislature known as the Folketing and the novel alternates between her story and that of the detective who works to solve the mystery of her disappearance five years earlier.

I tend to judge a book by how many times I think about it when I am not actually reading it. Can I identify with the characters and their concerns pop into my mind when I am folding the laundry or driving the car? And when I read the last page do I immediately begin the search for a sequel? Lacking a sequel, do I immediately begin re-reading the book?

I always preferred Jane Marple to Hercule Poirot because i could more easily relate to her. Hercule always seemed too weird and one dimensional for my taste. Aside from his mustache the only thing I knew for sure about him was that his ego was truly obese. John Rebus I like, but often found myself wanting to give him a good swift kick in the butt and insist that he develop a little self awareness. Fortunately, he operated in Edinburgh and I can put up with a lot to imagine myself back there again. I love Charlotte Pitt and her husband Thomas, unlike Kurt Manning, whom I try to tolerate.

Carl Morck is the type of detective I enjoy. A complicated man, he is recovering from a shooting incident that killed one of his team and paralyzed another but left him with only a bullet graze. And the sinking guilt that he survived and never drew his weapon. Police work has lost its appeal for him and he is simply marking time.

Difficult to work with before the shooting, returning from sick leave he finds himself exiled to a basement office and assigned cold cases under a new program dictated by the Danish Folketing. He found the reassignment less than upsetting:

"He was still going to do exactly what he wanted to. Which was, as much as possible, absolutely nothing."

But the curiosity and skill that made him such an outstanding detective in the past that his “eternally skeptical eyes and caustic remarks” were overlooked by his superiors surfaces in an old case that his assistant subtly urges on him.

Oh yes, in addition to a freshly painted basement office, Hafez el-Assad is assigned as his assistant. Intriguing in his own right, Assad is hired to make coffee, clean the basement and drive Morck in his assigned departmental Peugeot 607. He brings a bit of his native Syria into the basement with his fragrant spices, teas, music “reminiscent of the bazaar in Sousse,” and his prayer rug. The relationship between the two men grows throughout the story and provides an occasional smile.

Divorced, but still in contact with his ex-wife, Carl shares his home with his teenage stepson who lives upstairs and favors heavy metal music at full volume, and a lodger who lives in the basement and enjoys operatic arias which also need a high volume.

Just as the two competing musical styles create a certain level of tension in the Morck household, the two competing tales told in alternating chapters create a tension in the reader. We are introduced to Merete in 2002 at the very beginning of the book when she is locked in a room from which she appears unable to escape. As we follow her struggles, we learn, through flashbacks, of the accident that took her parents life and left her to raise her brother who was severely injured and suffered brain damage.

The novel alternates between Merete and Carl stories in a thoroughly satisfying manner. The pacing is taut enough to keep the reader turning the pages and the plot complex enough to engage the reader’s mind. The main characters are fully realized and easy to identify with although the lesser characters are not as fully drawn. But then, this is a detective novel, and they don’t really need to be. The joy is in the mystery and the steps to its solution.

This is part of the wave of Scandanavian mysteries that has been hitting our shores since Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy made such a big hit here in the States. Although some readers have long been familiar with the genre, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo created a new audience with an appetite for Nordic Noir.

"Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark's premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe, and he's won just about every Nordic crime-writing award, including the prestigious Glass Key Award-also won by Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Jo Nesbo. Now, Dutton is thrilled to introduce him to America." - Amazon. The Kindle edition is translated by Lisa Hartford.

Unfortunately, it is the only work of Adler-Olsen that has yet been translated into English. And this, the first of four novels in the Q series, was published in August of 2011 four years after its Danish publication. So I guess it will be a while before the rest of them are available unless one can read Danish.

It will be a very long year. show less

Nothing is hotter than Scandinavian thrillers right now, and Denmark is throwing its hat in the ring with The Keeper of Lost Causes by award-winning author Jussi Adler-Olsen. Adler-Olsen does what most recent Scandinavian imports do best—serves up a compelling, dark story with enough cruel twists to leave the reader thinking, "What is in that coffee over there?"

The Keeper of Lost Causes follows Copenhagen detective Carl Morck a few months after he has been shot on the job. When Carl returns to the force and refuses to play nicely with his fellow detectives, he is unexpectedly promoted to head up the new cold cases division, Department Q. Given only a stack of case files and Assad, a jack-of-all-trades assistant, Carl begins to show more investigate the disappearance of Merete Lyngaard, a rising politician.

The narrative alternates between Carl's investigation and the real circumstances of Merete's disappearance. The investigation bumbles along at times, with a few lucky breaks and a lot of help from unassuming Assad. But the chapters that follow Merete are tight, twisted, and intensely pressure-packed, leaving the reader wanting more but afraid to admit it (and more than a little worried that Adler-Olsen might gladly give it to them).

Adler-Olsen excels at weaving in the secondary characters and plots. While Carl comes across as a first-rate jerk and second-rate detective at times, Assad, with his secretive past and sundry talents, puts the clues together and makes a mean curry. The Keeper of Lost Causes spins an interesting investigation tale, but Adler-Olsen's true talent is creating horrific crime scenarios. The Keeper of Lost Causes is the first in the new Department Q series from Adler-Olsen, and he would do readers a favor by revealing more about Assad in future books, as well as keeping the terrifically twisted narratives coming.

(Review copy source: Dutton via NetGalley) show less

Das Buch beginnt - nach dem obligatorischen Prolog, der einen einstimmt auf das was kommt - eher verhalten. In zwei zeitlich versetzten Erzählsträngen werden auf den ersten 70 Seiten die Hauptpersonen beschrieben.
Carl - ein sich selbst zermürbender Vizepolizeikommissar, seitdem während einer Mordermittlung ein Kollege starb und ein anderer schwer verletzt wurde, er selbst hingegen nur eine Schramme davontrug. Da niemand mit ihm zusammenarbeiten möchte, wird er 'wegbefördert': Zum Leiter des Sonderdezernat Q, spezialisiert auf lang zurückliegende, ungelöste Fälle. Ihm zur Seite steht Hafez el-Assad, eine syrische Hilfskraft als Mädchen für alles, der sich jedoch schnell auf eine unnachahmliche Art und Weise unersetzlich show more macht. Er ist es auch, der den Fall des ungeklärten Verschwindens von Merete Lynggard aus den Aktenbergen hervorkramt.
Der zweite Erzählstrang handelt von Merete Lynggard, beginnend fünf Jahre zuvor einige Zeit vor ihrer Entführung. Während einer Reise mit ihrem Bruder wird sie betäubt und findet sich in einem dunklen Betonverlies wieder, das sie für lange Zeit nicht mehr verlassen wird.
Auch wenn diser Thriller vergleichsweise wenig Blut und Gemetzel zu bieten hat und die Lösung relativ bald klar ist, lässt er an Spannung und Grausamkeit nichts zu wünschen übrig. Die Schilderungen von Meretes Isolationshaft, ihre Versuche ihren Lebenswillen aufrecht zu erhalten, der Kampf darum einen Rest von Würde zu bewahren - eindringlicher geht es kaum. Oder die Beschreibung ihrer Zahnschmerzen - es stehen einem die Nackenhaare zu Berge (mir zumindest). Fairerweise muss man dazu schreiben, dass dieser Teil nur ca. ein Drittel des Buches ausmacht. Der Rest 'gehört' den Ermittlern.
Doch dies liest sich ebenso spannend und streckenweise durchaus amüsant, insbesondere was die Zusammenarbeit von Carl und Assad betrifft. Auch für Fortsetzungen sind genügend Handlungsfäden ausgelegt: Gelingt es Carl doch noch, die schöne Polizeipsychologin zum Essen einzuladen? Wie kommt sein behinderter Kollege mit der Situation klar? Welches Geheimnis verbirgt Assad?
Alles in allem: Empfehlenswert, daher: LESEN! show less

Except for the novels of Norwegian Karin Fossum, I hadn’t read any of the Scandinavian crime fiction that’s all the rage. Not Jo Nesbø, not Henning Mankell, not Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, not even Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

OK, so I live in a cave.

For that reason, I really can’t compare Jussi Adler-Olsen’s The Keeper of Lost Causes to other Scandinavian crime novels. Are they all this dark? Are their protagonists as curmudgeonly as Adler-Olsen’s Carl Mørck, a police deputy superintendent whose lost whatever little joy he had in life when one partner was killed and the other paralyzed during an ambush? For expedience’s sake, Carl gets “promoted” to head a cold-case department, nicknamed show more Department Q. His only staff is the deceptively sweet Hafez al-Assad, a man as adept at housekeeping as he is at ferreting out clues and getting witnesses to talk.

I enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Causes much more than I thought I would, and I got to really appreciate both curmudgeon Carl and the under-estimated Assad. Their uneasy camaraderie rivaled the riveting mystery to make this debut novel a five-star read. show less

Detective Carl Mørck survives a shooting that kills one his partners and paralyzes the others. A curmudgeon that no one else in the department likes, he finds himself "promoted" to lead the new Division Q funded by a national government initiative to solve cold cases. His superiors see to it that most of the money earmarked for Division Q goes into the general police funding, while Carl gets a basement office and one assistant, a charming Syrian refugee named Hafez al-Assad.

Carl is drawn to the case of a rising star in the Parliament, Merete Lynggaard, who disappeared on a ferry ride to Berlin. The police have decided she died by suicide or an accidental fall from the ship, but Carl suspects there's more to the story. During Merete's show more career in politics she had been very private of her personal life. Despite the gossip papers efforts to reveal a hidden romance, in reality she spent her off time caring for her younger brother Uffe. As a child, Merete survived a car crash that killed her parents and cause Uffe to be developmentally disabled and unable to speak. This crash will play an important part in the story in other ways. The reality is that she's been abducted and kept in a pressure chamber for five years by her cruel captors.

Carl is an "old-fashioned" type of detective, and not a very likable character but more pitiable than loathsome. Assad adds a lot of warmth and humor and is my favorite part of the book. I found the motivations of the villains to be implausible with no explanation other than they are "crazy" as Adler-Olsen keeps reminding us. But crazy people don't make compelling antagonists. The scenes with Merete in captivity are very unsettling and it reads almost like torture porn. There's copaganda too, as Carl and Assad are only able to save the day by breaking the rules. But there is humanity in this story to that keeps it engaging right up to the hopeful, but definitively not happy, ending. show less

After a shoot-out which left his team decimated, Detective Carl Mørck is “promoted” to the basement to run Department Q, but with Mørck’s stubbornness and office assistant Assad’s shady skills, the two of them may just surprise all the naysayers. This one takes a little while to get going since Mørck starts off quite an off-putting character, but once we're up to speed with all the different voices, it becomes extremely engaging. Even after the beginning, Mørck can get a little too negative at times, but Assad's semi-(or is it pseudo-?)innocent charm and murky MO easily balances it out and the combination of the two together is why the story works so well - the sum is much greater than the total of the parts. And, although show more what actually happens to Merete Lynggaard beggars belief on a major scale and the ending veers slightly toward convenient, I'm enamored enough with all the characters to suspend my belief and be horrified on her behalf. Beware that there are some cruel torture scenes in this one that might not be for the faint of heart - there's especially one scene involving a tooth that had even me gagging a bit. Highly recommended for my fellow grim-and-gruesome mystery fans. Note that I read this in Swedish and can't vouch for the English translation. show less