Part of Department Q, book 4
First published 2010
Nete Hermansen thought she had escaped. Forty years ago, Danish authorities deported unwanted women to a remote island where cruelty and torture maintained order. Nete survived that place and built a new life. Now her past has found her. Vice Police Commissioner Carl Mørck has enough problems. A murder investigation may implicate him personally, and his private life is falling apart. But his stubborn assistants Rose and Assad push him to reopen a case from twenty-three years ago, one that ended with violent consequences for everyone involved. The small Department Q team soon realizes this old case represents just a fragment of something much larger. They uncover abuse of the most brutal kind, abuse that apparently continues today. Their quiet, methodical investigation takes a toll on Carl, especially when their involvement becomes life-threatening. Just when Carl thinks he understands how everything connects, a new and coldly calculating player enters the game.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, found-family, redemption
Setting: Denmark
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
461 pages · Paperback · Politiken
Content warnings: abuse, torture, violence