The Absent One

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is the second book in the Department Q series and while I personally quite enjoyed the story, I can see why many had difficulties with it. At the heart of this story is man’s cruelty to man, and the perpetrators in this story are particularly heartless and nasty. While there wasn’t much mystery here, as we know right from the start who the bad guys are, the author takes his time with his story, slowly revealing more and more about this group of sociopaths.

The Department Q personnel gets added to with the arrival of Rose, the secretary who Carl discovers has a reputation for being difficult. Assad and Rose hit it off immediately, but Carl and Rose get off to a shaky start. I found Rose a welcome show more addition to the group and look forward to learning more about her. The author is still continuing to drop hints about Assad’s background which will undoubtedly prove very interesting.

The Absent One was very cleverly crafted with the author less interested in keeping the identity of the perpetrators secret as in slowly revealing cause and motivation. With well constructed characters, light touches of humor and a compelling story-line this second book has made continuing on with this series an absolute must. show less

In the second novel of Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series, Detective Carl Mørck reopens a 20-year-old murder investigation involving the brutal slaughter of two teenage siblings. He’s led to a group of privileged, sociopathic, private school chums who carry-out Clockwork Orange style violence on unsuspecting victims for the thrill and exhilaration of it all. Interestingly enough, three of the six original group members, now approaching middle-age, still partake in this violence while also maintaining very lucrative careers in what might be considered morally suspect fields – plastic surgery, the stock market, etc.

I sort of feel like this is cheating, but I’m simply going to do a good vs. bad list.

The good:
*Engaging style, free show more of unnecessary fluff, that pulls the reader in from the start. Really, he’s just a darn good writer and I appreciate that in this genre and feel it should be stated.
*A well drawn, fascinating, and complex character in (former) group member Kirsten-Marie Lassen. Despite the fact that she’s arguably more evil than her male counterparts in the group, I found myself going back and forth between being horrified by her and sympathizing and perhaps even rooting for her (surely, I can’t be alone in this).
*Just the right amount of detective back story. Too much tends to annoy me.

The bad:
* I’m not one to complain about violence levels in crime novels (they are, in fact, crime novels), but in this case, the ever-present animal abuse and multiple rape scenes caused me to avoid listening to this book for days at a time. While I didn’t exactly see it as gratuitous, I simply couldn’t take it, in this case.
*I suppose I like a bit more mystery with my Scandi-crime, and unlike The Keeper of Lost Causes, this novel had very little, if any. The reader knows (basically) who is guilty from the start. The rest is just a matter of figuring out how Mørck will capture them. I know this isn’t breaking any crime novel rule, but it’s not what I tend to prefer.
*The ongoing language barrier jokes between Mørck and his Middle-Eastern assistant Assad get old quickly. It wasn’t particularly funny the first time, and it’s certainly not funny the next 8 to 10 times. I say: No humor in Scandi-crime (and also sports reporting)! Others may disagree.

So there it is. It’s worth reading if you want to continue with this series, as I do, but this particular novel is definitely flawed. show less

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is a worthy follow-up to the debut Department Q novel, Keeper of Lost Causes. Copenhagen's Department Q handles cold cases and is headed up by ornery Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Morck (they apparently like long job titles; at one point his sidekick Assad is referred to as "Assistant Assistant Superintendent"). This time a file mysteriously appears on Morck's desk regarding the 1987 murder of a teenage brother and sister in a summer cottage. It appears to have been done by a gang of privileged boarding school friends, out of which only the poorest of them confessed and went to prison. The rest went on to become extremely successful in the business world based on their high level connections. show more All except Kimmie, the one girl in the gang who is now homeless but far from helpless, and not happy at all with the rest of them. Morck and the Syrian Assad are joined by obstreperous Rose, who constantly spars with Carl but uncovers key information. The gang's activities may be even more extensive than first supposed. But why are they all afraid of Kimmie?

There is a fairly high degree of sadism and creepiness in this one, but for me it was well-leavened by the humor, hijinks and doggedness of Carl, Assad and Rose, as they deal with office politics and a high-up attempt to squelch the investigation. The series also features Carl's awkward efforts at romance with a therapist, and his struggles with his guilt over a partner who was paralyzed in a disastrous ambush. The first two in this Scandicrime series have been impressive, and I'm now looking forward to reading the third. show less

Sin ninguna duda este libro, es por mucho mejor que el primero y eso, es mucho decir, porque el primero “La mujer que arañaba las paredes”, es sin duda un muy buen libro.

Los personajes están bien definidos psicológicamente, la manera en que nos muestra la sociopatía y psicopatía de un grupo de muchachos que se unen para apoyarse unos a otros en actos delictivos, es bastante perturbador, se nos ilustra perfectamente el éxtasis de los culpables a la hora de hacer daño y al mismo tiempo a cara del publico ser hombres muy respetables, esto muestra una enorme capacidad de Adler-Olsen para interiorizarse en sus personajes creados, es duro sin llegar ser escabroso.

Una historia muy bien manejada en todos los sentidos, tiene la show more ligereza de la narración, pero al mismo tiempo la profundidad de la historia, negra, fuerte y dura, por lo que la hace a mi parecer una historia redonda.

El Departamento Q, creado para investigar casos no resueltos, se encuentra con uno que aparentemente es un caso resuelto, pero que de alguna manera aparece en el escritorio de Carl, le van dejando pistas de tal forma que se da cuenta de que en realidad no es un caso cerrado como aparenta y que detrás de unos asesinatos cometidos 20 años atrás se encuentran un grupo de personas influyentes y respetadas.

Una persecución a una vagabunda, varios “accidentes”, amenazas veladas y más encontraremos en esta nueva entrega de la serie Departamento Q.

Por cierto que seguimos con la incógnita de quién es en realidad Assad y el caso en el que Mørck pierde a sus dos compañeros al inicio de la serie sigue siendo relevante pero incierto, una buena manera de mantenernos a la expectativa de una manera bastante sutil.

También me gusta mucho la mancuerna de Mørck y Assad, entiendo que el autor no pretenda ser gracioso, pero no puedo dejar de sonreír con algunas de las escenas entre ellos dos.
Muy recomendable esta segundo libro de Jussi Adler-Olden, quien por supuesto se ha consagrado con esta serie como uno de los escritores más leídos de novela negra en el mundo. show less

Spannung, obwohl man die Täter bereits zu Beginn kennt? Mitgefühl für eine brutale Gewalttäterin? Witz und Ironie in einem Thriller, dessen Hauptthema das abgrundtief Böse zu sein scheint? Für das neue Buch von Jussi Adler-Olsen kein Widerspruch.
Wieder nimmt sich Carl Morck eines alten Falles an, obwohl dieser aufgeklärt scheint. Ein Mann wurde für den Tod eines Geschwisterpaares verurteilt und sitzt nach vielen Jahren noch immer hinter Gittern. Doch jemand scheint Zweifel an dieser Lösung zu haben, denn die Akte wurde auf unbekannte Weise auf Morcks Schreibtisch deponiert. Als man bereits zu Beginn versucht, seine Ermittlungen zu unterbinden, erwacht sein Widerspruchsgeist und er intensiviert seine Nachforschungen erst recht show more und landet bald in den höchsten Kreisen der Gesellschaft.
Man weiß bereits zu Beginn, wer für die Morde verantwortlich ist, ohne jedoch die Hintergründe zu kennen, die dazu führten. Nach und nach erfährt man die Einzelheiten und voller Entsetzen verfolgt man, wie Kimmie, die einzige Frau in einer Clique mit fünf krankhaft gewalttätigen Männern zu der wurde, die sie heute ist. Obwohl sie selbst nicht weniger brutal und grausam ist als ihre Freunde, ist man doch voller Mitgefühl für diesen Menschen, der ein Ausmaß an Kälte und Lieblosigkeit erleiden musste, das man seinem ärgsten Feind nicht wünscht.
Wie in seinem ersten Fall ermittelt Morck gemeinsam mit seinem Assistenten Assad, der zusammen mit Rose, der neuen und von Morck verabscheuten Sekretärin, wieder für manch witzige Einlage sorgt. Auch die Beziehung zu Mona Ibsen, der Polizeipsychologin macht Fortschritte: Sie geht mit ihm essen, was bei Morck nicht nur für Freude sorgt...
Spannend, witzig, brutal, kritisch - eine wirklich gelungener Thriller! show less

DISGRACE is the second book in the Danish series featuring Carl Mørck, who heads Copenhagen's cold case squad. A department made up of one very grumpy, sidelined cop; one civilian assistant who used to be the cleaner, and as of DISGRACE, one secretary who seems to have been shunted down to the basement with the other two because she's caused havoc everywhere else.

If you've not read the earlier book - THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES - a little background of the characters. Mørck is wonderfully cynical, grumpy and tricky to get on with. Which doesn't seem to worry his Syrian assistant Assad at all. The patient Assad is the perfect counterpoint for Mørck. Actually he's probably one of the very few people in the world who can work with him, show more that list now including Rose - a secretarial come research assistant with an attitude not afraid to be just as grumpy and cantankerous as her boss.

The cases investigated by Department Q seem to depend a lot on which files Assad pre-reads and considers worthy of Mørck's attention, although in this case, a file anonymously arrives on Mørck's desk on the brutal bashing murder of a teenage brother and sister twenty years ago. What makes it an unlikely candidate for Department Q is that there is somebody in jail already, having confessed to the killings. But the method of arrival of the file raises lots of questions in the team's mind, and as soon as they start to scratch the surface, there's a lot more to this and connected cases than anybody originally bothered to look at. Although almost immediate pressure from above probably gives a hint about why the case seemed to be filed away so quickly, it's partly that pressure that makes Mørck even more determined to get to the bottom of it.

This series is a strong combination of character and plot, although in this outing the gang of villains and their activities are about as stomach churning as you'd want to deal with as up close as DISGRACE makes you do. As Mørck gradually connects the killings with a range of other assaults and murders, it quickly becomes apparent that there is one woman that can shed some light on all these cases. Kimmie's damaged by her involvement with the gang of old schoolfriends who now are pursuing her. She's been living on the streets for many years now, despite being a relatively wealthy young woman. And she's got some very big secrets and some scores to settle of her own.

The plot revolves around who finds Kimmie first, as well as working out the connections between the gang and the various cases and it works really well, despite sometimes being a little too bogged down in side issues. There is enough suspense to keep the reader motivated to continue through those slight lags, although there is also a lot of violent and horrible imagery which is frequently offset by the humour - particularly Mørck's dry and self-deprecating style. For those for whom it's a serious problem - there are depictions of animal cruelty which are like to upset.

What makes this series one that's particularly appealing are the characters. Their development into a team from the first book, through to this one makes them really engaging and very real. Their dynamic makes dealing with the nasty privileged monsters that are the perpetrator's palatable if not comfortable. It's a series that I'm, yet again, way too far behind on and champing at the bit to continue with.

Some clarification:

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES also published as MERCY
DISGRACE also published as THE ABSENT ONE

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

I've rarely had a problem reading about violence in mystery novels. My feelings are protected for the most case because its fiction.

But... this novel has one of the most outrageously violent plots I've come across. I've always thought psychopathic killers work alone or perhaps with one other person but here there's a terrifying group of them. Their business model is to assault people and offer them huge sums of money to keep quiet. Oddly it works for the most part, until it doesn't and many people are killed.

What these men do to their friend and classmate Kimmie is egregious, and they deserve her wrath and everything that happens to them. The fact that their families and friends were aware of much of what was going on and did nothing show more to stop it makes it so much worse and more frightening.

I'm grateful that Carl, Assad and Rose don't give up investigating this cold case which is really many cold cases in one. show less