My husband and I were recently transfixed by the Department Q TV series, so I set out to find the books it was based on. They are by the Danish writer, Jussi Adler-Olsen.
The mystery in the first book was the same one as in the first series, but lucky for me, the TV series changed it enough so that it wasn’t totally predictable. They also changed the personality of Merete Lynggard and the motive for the crime, which was even more senseless than in the TV series.
Following a shooting incident which wounded Carl Mørck, paralyzed his partner Hardy, and killed Officer Anker, the department doesn’t quite know what to do with Carl. The media has been out to get him, claiming that he hid behind Hardy when in actuality Hardy fell on top of him, and he is difficult and not liked by most of his colleagues. Then his boss is told to set up a special department to investigate cold cases and given a large budget to fund it. So, the boss takes most of the money for the homicide department and sticks Carl in a basement with only one assistant, a Syrian refuge named Assad, charged with cold cases.
At first, Carl is totally apathetic. He spends his days playing games on his phone and visiting Hardy in the hospital. When they finally get some files, it is Assad who reads them and encourages him to pick the case of Merete Lynggard.
Merete was a rising political star when she disappeared without a trace from a ferry on vacation with her disabled brother Uffe. The investigators eventually decided she had fallen overboard. But we readers know she is alive and being held captive, because occasionally the novel flashes back to events five years before, when she was taken, and to her situation in the present.
Despite my knowledge of many of the plot points, I found this novel intriguing. The characters are interesting—Carl is actually a tad more sympathetic than in the TV series (although probably not as handsome)—and the mystery is a good one, with a suspenseful climax and a touching ending. Now I just need to read the second book before the next series comes out.
What? Me Read? 
I read a couple in this series a few years ago and they were fine, but eventually I gave up on them. I haven’t watched the TV show yet and really don’t understand why they’ve moved the location to Scotland!
That’s true, they did. Do you remember why you gave up? The second book is really grim so far.
To be honest, it was mostly because I didn’t like the way he made Assad a sort of figure of fun. I don’t know if that happens in the early books – as usual I jumped in later. But I felt he became a kind of comedy stereotype.
Oh, I haven’t noticed that at all. At least they’re not doing that on the TV series.
That’s good to hear! I was thinking of watching it so that encourages me.