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Book Review of The Absent One (aka Disgrace) (Department Q, Bk 2)

The Absent One (aka Disgrace) (Department Q, Bk 2)
reviewed on + 112 more book reviews


Hmmmm... I am SHOCKED ... SHOCKED ... at the antics and diviant entertainments of the Danish superrich. ;-)

About one third of the way into the book, you know who the players are in this book, and given it is a mystery-detective story, you can guess how it will end. But dispair not. The story is in the writer's skillful pen (by way of our British translater).

First, the expected ending is suspenseful as our intrepid dectetives must escape the deadly situation and catch the bad guys.

Second, the PATH to the ending held many unexpected twists and turns as you learn the about the past events that led up to the present.

Third, Afler-Olsen not only further develops Carl and Assad, but drops Rose into the basement as another underutilized misfit troublemaker shunted into Department Q. The basement is becoming a very cultural county fair as they doggedly dig out obscure clues from the mountain ranges of bureaucratic records and news stories that lead to the villian(s).

Last, something rumbles in Denmark as the police bureaucracy undergoes yet another round of unexpected changes. In other countries, you can't get rid of the spoiling apples from the upper echelons. But in Copenhagen, they hop out of the barrels on their own!

I am reading the 3rd book and just put myself down for the 4th. The Scandinavian mysteries have their own definitive style and flow apart from the English, Japanese, Chinese, and American detectives. So far its been 2 out of 3 gloomy Scandinavian protagonists for me.