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Published Aug 2012
416 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
In The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen introduced Detective Carl Mørck, a deeply flawed, brilliant detective newly assigned to run Department Q, the home of Copenhagen's coldest cases. The result wasn't what Mørck - or readers - expected, but by the opening of Adler-Olsen's shocking, fast-paced follow-up, Mørck is satisfied with the notion of picking up long-cold leads. So he's naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk: A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and one of the suspects - part of a group of privileged boarding-school students - confessed and was convicted.
But once Mørck reopens the files, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Looking into the supposedly solved case leads him to Kimmie, a woman living on the streets, stealing to survive. Kimmie has mastered evading the police, but now they aren't the only ones looking for her. Because Kimmie has secrets that certain influential individuals would kill to keep buried... as well as one of her own that could turn everything on its head.
Every bit as pulse-pounding as the book that launched the series, The Absent One delivers further proof that Jussi Adler-Olsen is one of the world's premier thriller writers.
"Starred Review. Adler-Olsen, Denmark's leading crime fiction author, outdoes his outstanding debut, The Keeper of Lost Causes, with his second Department Q novel." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Adler-Olsen has created a wonderful addition to the detective fiction genre... Readers of detective fiction, international crime fiction, and suspense fiction will highly enjoy this thriller." - Library Journal
"As in Department Q's debut (The Keeper of Lost Causes, 2011), Adler-Olsen plots and writes with both eyes on Stieg You-Know-Who. The result is overscaled, lumpy, strenuously unnuanced and destined for the bestseller lists." - Kirkus Reviews
"Less riveting than the first one, but worthwhile for fans." - Booklist
"The Copenhagen-set sequel to The Keeper of Lost Causes is quirky and wry." - The Sacramento Bee
This information about The Absent One was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Phillip Drago Joergensen
Jussi Adler-Olsen was born in Copenhagen and worked as a magazine editor and publisher before starting to write. Redemption is the third novel in the Department Q series, following on from Disgrace and Mercy. Jussi Adler-Olsen holds the prestigious Glass Key Award, given annually for a crime novel by a Scandinavian author, and is also winner of the Golden Laurels, Denmark's highest literary accolade.
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