When Habersaat commits suicide at his retirement party in protest over decades of official “indifference and thoughtlessness” especially concerning the cold case, Mørck is shamed by his assistant Rose into going to the island of Bornholm where Habersaat worked and died. Assad and Rose accompany him.
They are provided with the files for Habersaat’s case. A teenage girl, Alberte Goldschmid, was hit head on by a vehicle and thrown up into the branches of a tree where she died. Her death was 17 years earlier. There are neither non-investigated leads nor evidence ignored. They will have to go over the whole investigation again.
When Habersaat’s 35 year old son, Bjarke, commits suicide the day of his father’s suicide there is heightened attention to the case.
The Department Q team starts digging down into the cold case re-interviewing those closest to Alberte who was attending a folk school.
Assad effectively leads initial interviews with aggressive questions.
Alberte was a beautiful sensual teenager.
In the present June, Habersaat’s ex-wife and Bjarke’s mother, is a bitter resentful woman.
A guru, Atu Abanshamash Dumuzi, is operating the Nature Absorption Academy in Sweden not far from Bornholm.
Pirjo Abanshamash Dumuzi, his devoted aide, is obsessed with wanting to become his lover and bear his children. He is indifferent to her desire.
Atu is mesmerizing. Before his devoted, well paying, disciples:
When Atu stepped forward in his yellow robe with the beautiful detailing on the arms, it was as if a light in the darkness - an aura of energy - was suddenly lit. It was like beholding the truth of life itself when he opened his embrace toward the assembly and took them into his world.
How Mørck and his team connect them to the deaths in Bornholm is fascinating.
Department Q probes and challenges reluctant witnesses about past statements as it finds out who Alberte was associating with almost two decades earlier. They are meticulous in examining thousands of pages of evidence assembled by Habersaat.
The search for Alberte’s last lover is frustrating but convincing as the Department interviews, examines and analyzes information. Their thoroughness produces incremental breakthroughs.
Department Q is a team guided rather than led by Mørck.
Mørck barely talks to his family. The death and funeral of an outspoken cousin draws accusations against Mørck going back decades.
As with several previous books in the series the investigation delves deeply into an aspect of society. In The Hanging Girl, Department Q examines a New Age religion based on multiple ancient sun based beliefs. A focus is Norse religious worship and the use of sunstones.
The ending is a thriller in the best American tradition. It need not have gone almost all the way to Hollywood. There was drama enough in what happened 17 years ago and the present.
You can quickly see in Adler-Olsen’s books where the investigation is going but the pleasure is following the investigation. Department Q eventually gets there. It is the endings which have surprises.
The books in the Department Q series are good but long at 500 pages. It would be interesting to see what Adler-Olsen could do in 350 pages.
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I'm glad you enjoyed this one, Bill. I do like the way the way Department Q works together to solve cases; that set of relationships is interesting. And I agree with you that they explore different aspects of the culture and society in these books. I admit I share your frustration with Hollywood endings; still, the book sounds appealing and that's a really interesting case they're investigating.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. Adler-Olsen has a knack for diving into an aspect of society and creating a credible mystery and making the series distinctly Danish.
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