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A Conspiracy of Faith is the entry where Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series locks fully into place. Carl Morck is the cold-case detective the Copenhagen homicide squad sent down to the basement to be rid of him. Assad and Rose are the impossible colleagues he has somehow accumulated. By book three, the dynamic is in tune and the cold case is the best one Adler-Olsen had served up so far.
The case starts with a partially destroyed message in a bottle, written in what turns out to be human blood, found years before in Scotland and slowly translated. Two brothers from a religious sect were taken. The killer is still operating. Adler-Olsen alternates between the contemporary investigation and the killer's point of view, and the killer chapters are some of the most quietly horrifying serial-killer chapters I have read because they are written in the language of family rather than monstrosity.
What makes the book special is the texture around the case. The Department Q office banter is funny in a way that does not feel like comic relief grafted onto a thriller. Rose is wonderful. Assad's backstory deepens. The case lands.
Five stars. If you are new to the series, you can start here without missing too much, though The Keeper of Lost Causes is also excellent.
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The Keeper of Lost Causes
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The first Department Q novel. Detective Carl Morck goes down to the basement and finds a five-year-old missing-politician case. The series begins here.
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Adler-Olsen's pre-Department Q standalone. Two British airmen hiding in a Nazi psychiatric hospital. Very different from his crime novels.
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