Review: The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

A Mysterious Review of …

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen. A Carl Mørck, Department Q Mystery.

Review summary: This Danish crime novel has an intriguing premise and starts strong, with a pair of police investigators, who have an entertaining dynamic between them. But the plot moves along at a glacial speed, taking far too long to cover what is essentially a very short distance. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

The Absent One
Jussi Adler-Olsen
A Carl Mørck, Department Q Mystery
Dutton (August 2012)

Publisher synopsis: Detective Carl 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.