Part of Department Q, book 8
First published 2020
A refugee dies crossing the Mediterranean, catalogued simply as Victim 2117. Her death triggers three dangerous reactions. In Denmark, troubled teenager Alex sees her as a symbol of his rage and plans his first murder. In the shadows, Ghallib, a brutal torturer from Abu Ghraib prison, uses her killing to launch a terrorist plot years in preparation. For Detective Assad of Copenhagen's Department Q cold case unit, she represents a link to his buried Syrian past and proof his family might still live. Assad must excavate painful memories from Syria and Afghanistan to track Ghallib while his colleagues Carl Mörck, Rose, and Gordon race against two deadly timelines. Alex prepares to kill and Ghallib moves toward an attack that could claim thousands of lives. The investigation forces Assad to confront who he was before joining Department Q and what he lost when he fled his homeland.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Copenhagen, Denmark, Mediterranean, Syria
Period: 21st-century
468 pages · Hardcover · Dutton Books
Content warnings: torture, violence