Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Absent One
    Unavailable
    The Absent One
    Unavailable
    The Absent One
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Absent One

    Written by Jussi Adler-Olsen

    Narrated by Steven Pacey

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In The Keeper of Lost Causes, Jussi Adler-Olsen introduced Detective Carl Mørck, a deeply flawed, brilliant detective newly assigned to run Department Q, the home of Copenhagen's coldest cases. The result wasn't what Mørck-or readers-expected, but by the opening of Adler-Olsen's shocking, fast-paced follow-up, 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.

    Every bit as pulse-pounding as the book that launched the series, The Absent One delivers further proof that Jussi Adler-Olsen is one of the world's premier thriller writers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 21, 2012
    ISBN9781101579336
    Unavailable
    The Absent One
    Author

    Jussi Adler-Olsen

    Nacido en 1950, Jussi AdlerOlsen es uno de los autores europeos de novela negra que más éxito ha cosechado.La víctima 2117 es el octavo volumen de su exitosa serie Los casos del Departamento Q, publicada en más de cuarenta y dos países y con más de quince millones de lectores.Ha ganado numerosos premios, entre ellos el Plume d’Or, el Glass Key, el De Gyldne Laurbaer y el Premio Barry.

    Related to The Absent One

    Related audiobooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      BODY & CLYDE

      Nov 21, 2021

      BODY & CLYDE
      1 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Sep 17, 2020

      Book Club
      2 min read

    • Article

      Busted! Stories From New Zealand’s Leading Private Investigator

      Jan 25, 2021

      by Ron McQuilter New Holland — $34.99 If you’re worried that the breathless tone won’t extend past that exclamation mark in the title of McQuilter’s diverting memoir, fear not. In fact, Breathless! could equally have served as the name of the book. T

      1 min read

    • Article

      Killer Thriller

      Nov 15, 2020

      Michael Connelly became the modern maestro of LA crime fiction thanks to his Harry Bosch series, but he’s also proven adept at switching from cop stories to courtroom drama. THE LAW OF INNOCENCE (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) sees the return of Mickey Halle

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Feb 24, 2023

      By Emma Flint It’s been six years since Flint’s debut novel, Little Deaths, but Other Women is worth the wait. Like its predecessor, this beautifully written historical mystery is based on a real case – here, a murder that took place in 1924. Bea Cad

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hear A Ticking Time Bomb

      Mar 15, 2020

      The five years that have passed since the hostage crisis at the Lindt Cafe in central Sydney are enough to clear this competent if not outstanding thriller of any charge of being exploitative. The author – a former family-law and criminal barrister i

      1 min read

    • Article

      Blood On The Snow

      Jan 24, 2020

      Blood On The Snow
      9 min read

    • Article

      Story Time

      Nov 4, 2020

      Emily Main is a London-based journalist writing a story for The New Yorker who, as the book opens, is flying in to Sydney. She’s there to write a story about the tragic demise of famous Aussie restaurant chain Lucky’s following a mass shooting at one

      1 min read

    • Article

      Annika

      Aug 25, 2022

      Annika
      1 min read

    • Article

      Little Girl Lost

      Mar 21, 2021

      Little Girl Lost
      2 min read

    • Article

      Law And Disorder

      Aug 30, 2021

      Law And Disorder
      2 min read

    • Article

      Who Really Murdered Schoolgirl Alma Tirtschke?

      Dec 19, 2021

      It was dawn on December 31, 1921, after what had been a sweltering and raucous summer night in a part of Melbourne reputed to be a “haven for evil characters” and awash with bars, brothels and betting shops – when a grim discovery was made. The body

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books That Hook

      Jul 3, 2020

      Books That Hook
      3 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Sep 23, 2022

      By Robert Galbraith At 1,024 pages, the sixth outing for private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott is the longest yet, but this tale of internet pileons repays the commitment. Edie Ledwell, co-creator of popular YouTube cartoon The Ink

      2 min read

    • Article

      THE Books You Should Have On Your To-read List.

      Jan 8, 2020

      ★★★★ IN the new thriller with James Patterson’s name to it we meet up with FBI agent Emmy Dockery again. She’s young and driven, and her unique skill at seeing connections others have missed has earned her an impressive string of arrests. However, a

      1 min read

    • Article

      True Detective

      Jul 9, 2018

      SHERLOCK HOLMES MAY BE THE greatest detective ever. But it turns out his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was no slouch himself. In a gripping new book, Conan Doyle for the Defense, journalist Margalit Fox tells the maddening story of how a German-Jewis

      1 min read

    • Article

      Will the Real Sherlock Holmes Please Stand Up?

      May 6, 2019

      The sensational real-life murder trial in 19th-century Scotland that cast a light on the extraordinary genesis of Conan Doyle's most famous character. The post Will the Real Sherlock Holmes Please Stand Up? appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fangtastic!

      Oct 22, 2020

      Fangtastic!
      1 min read

    • Article

      THRILLING & CHILLING

      Oct 27, 2023

      By MJ ARLIDGE ORION There are only a handful of convicted criminals in the United Kingdom who upon their release from prison have been given permanent, lifelong anonymity by the courts and authorities. These are individuals who’ve committed heinous

      2 min read

    • Article

      Memories Of Murder

      Aug 17, 2023

      Memories Of Murder
      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Blackest Of Deeds’

      Nov 25, 2021

      ‘Blackest Of Deeds’
      3 min read

    • Article

      Plenty Of Thrills

      May 6, 2022

      On a Tuesday morning Julianne Hillier arrives at the beautiful Art Deco home of her best friend, Piper Holden, for their regular weekly jog around the upmarket Essex seaside town of Midtown-on-Sea. But nobody answers when she rings the bell. When the

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Apr 26, 2024

      By Ajay Chowdhury The fourth novel in Chowdhury’s series sees the former Kolkata policeman turned Met officer Kamil Rahman recruited by MI5 to foil a terrorist plot being hatched in an east London mosque. His attempts to win the plotters’ trust take

      2 min read

    • Article

      80 Who Killed Claude Kendall? The Mystery Murder Of Charles Fort’s Publisher

      Dec 3, 2020

      Millions of Americans celebrated Thanksgiving in the comfort of their homes on 25 November 1937, but for one man fate reserved a different outcome. That same night, in a room on the eighth floor of a New York hotel, Claude Kendall was brutally beaten

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Mystery Of Jack The Ripper

      Jun 11, 2020

      The Mystery Of Jack The Ripper
      3 min read

    Reviews for The Absent One

    4/5

    689 ratings52 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      A disappointment! I really liked Jussi Adler-Olsen's "Keeper of the Lost Causes" and was looking forward to the next installment of Department Q, but "The Absent One" is definitely not in the same class. Carl Morck, Assad and Rosa never seem to gel the way the two of them did in the first book. It seems unbelievable that they even solve the case. "The Absent One" was rather an unbelievable story. Rich teenagers that get manipulated by another student into drug addled killers and sexual sadists who continue into adulthood while becoming well respected industrialists and fashion celebrities.Add to it a rabid fox. A hungry hyaena. Hunting wild animals in the heart of Denmark? The novel starts off well, but then deteriorates into a totally unbelievable story with drug addicts, street people, private eyes, explosions, mummified babies etc. I am going to read the next one in the series because the first one was good and see if he gets back on track.
    • 4/5
      The sadistic scenes are too much for me. I skipped them. I suggest you do as well, to save your soul. The detective is described as "deeply flawed" in the blurbs. He is more than that. His hot shot immigrant sidekick and assertive pissed off female assistant are abused but give back. No namby-pamby stuff. And then there are the perps--all pieces of work, as they used to say--with abusive family backstories and downright evil histories. Not a puzzle mystery. You know all the players early on; but a who-will-get-whacked-and-how-terribly-nasty-will-it-be mystery.
    • 4/5
      Nordic noir indeed. This is the second book in the Department Q series that I have read. Following in the footsteps of Stieg Larssen and Henning Mankell Jussi Adler-Olsen exposes the dark underbelly of Scandinavian society. I find it hard to believe that the countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are as dark and violent as these writers portray. After all these countries consistently show up in the top of the lists of countries that are good places to live. Perhaps when you no longer have to worry about sickness and poverty and lousy housing your thoughts can turn to other ways to show how humanity can go wrong. In this book Department Q, the division assigned to looking into unsolved cases, has been augmented by a secretary, Rose. Carl Morck and his assistant Assad have taken on a case that supposedly has already been solved. The murder of a brother and sister twenty years ago threw suspicion on a group of boarding school students but nothing could ever be proven. Then about 9 years ago one of the group confessed and he is serving time in prison. So why are Morck and his department looking into it again? That's what Morck's superiors want to know but the more Morck and Assad and Rose look at the evidence the more it seems that this group is guilty of not just this crime but others. Morck wants to find the one girl involved in the group, Kimmi, because she is the one who seems the most vulnerable. The remaining three men are all very successful and protected but Kimmi is homeless and psychologically disturbed. Finding Kimmi is very difficult though because she does not want to be found. I don't think I would want to read a steady diet of these type of books but there is a certain fascination in seeing how the evidence slowly accumulates. As well, the relationships among the team members get more interesting with each book. I can certainly see myself reading the next in the series, A Conspiracy of Faith.
    • 4/5
      In the second book of the Department Q series Carl and Assad investigating an old crime again. This time the storytelling is a bit 'Columbo-style ', so the reader knows the bad guys from the beginning. Another great crime story hardly wait to read the next one.
    • 4/5
      I hate giving this book just three stars, especially when I gave Adler-Olson's first book, "The Keeper of Lost Causes," five, but the truth is - I just didn't enjoy it as much. Somehow, any small imperfections I was completely willing to overlook in the first book seemed much more of a distraction this time around.Obviously, Adler-Olson is a terrific writer. Before I was even 1/2 way through "The Keeper of Lost Causes" I had already ordered the next three titles in the series that are available in English. And, as with the previous book, I finished "The Absent One" in just a few days - four, to be exact. However, I realized fairly soon into it that I wasn't enjoying the interactions between the characters, especially those of Carl and his now partner, Assad, nearly as much as I had in his previous book. And since it was exactly those interactions that I was looking forward to, this was a let-down.For me, the introduction of Rose - a secretary who is assigned to Carl's newly formed Department "Q" (think "Cold Case") was definitely a distraction. There was no real explanation given for why she's assigned to this particular department, other than that fact that she passed all of her exams - except the driving one - with flying colors. Her character wasn't very well-developed, true. But honestly, I couldn't really put my finger on what exactly I didn't like about her and maybe this is why I found her such a distraction. To give credit, Carl has a problem with her, too.I also found that I didn't have nearly as many of those laugh-out-loud moments as I did with "The Keeper of Lost Causes." There were some, sure, but not like before. Carl and Assad's relationship does continue to develop, somewhat, but the mystery that is Assad isn't delved into like the last book led me to believe it would be. And this was disappointing, because Assad's is one of my favorite fictional characters EVER! I loved all the little clues dropped in the first book and I was really hoping we'd learn more this time around, but we don't :(!I'll admit now, I don't understand Carl's relationship with the division's therapist, Mona Ibsen. First, her name alone is a distraction, because Mona is also the name of Kurt Wallander's ex-wife in Henning Mankell's popular detective series which is set in Sweden, another Scandinavian country. And, I don't particularly like Kurt's (ex-)wife - she comes across as rather bitchy, although I'd suspect that she's written this way.Second, I am a therapist myself and apparently the rules over in Norway are quite a bit different from those in the States, as Carl frequently daydreams about dating his Mona and her responses seem to indicate that this just might be a possibility. Indeed, they have their first "date" in this book and although it doesn't go that well, Mona leads Carl to believe that there's still hope. Obviously. A therapist dating a client, especially one that s/he still has a therapeutic relationship with, is definitely a no-no in the US. So, I guess the rules are different in Norway. Not sure what to think about this, but definitely disconcerting.Third, I just can't figure out why Carl is attracted to Mona. She's beautiful - ok, but that's it? She doesn't seem particularly smart, witty, fun - honestly we don't get much of a feel for her at all. Since her character was introduced in the first book, I think that it was reasonable to expect that we'd learn a little more about her this time. And looks alone just don't seem like something Carl would choose to build a relationship on, unless I've read him completely wrong.Finally, the violence in this book was very disturbing. I know it was intended to be, but in this case, it made it hard for me to enjoy the story. Maybe because this story centers around the perpetrators of the violence - six fifth-form students who attend a fancy boarding school and become known, collectively, as "The Gang." They are basically a bunch of psychotic barbaric savages who get their rocks off by hurting anything or anyone they perceive as vulnerable and weak. Adler-Olson's last book focused primarily on the stories of Carl, a traumatized detective seeking redemption, and Merle, a smart, savvy, up-and-coming politician who is kidnapped and held without ransom. While Merle's kidnappers are definitely of the heinous sort, there is at least some attempt to explain the source of their pathology. In "The Absent One," there is simply no way to account for the pathological savagery of Kristian, Ulrik, Ditlev, Torsten, Bjarne, and Kimmie. They are evil, period. Adler-Olson makes a half-hearted attempt to give us a back-story on "Kimmie," the sole girl in "The Gang," that will give us some context in which to understand her later acts of cruelty and violence. However, it falls so pathetically short, it would have been better to have left it out completely, but that would have made for a different story altogether.The members of "The Gang," including Kimmie, are far worse than apathetic and ammoral - they actively seek out victims to humiliate and beat, often to death, because they enjoy it. I've got to give Adler-Olson credit here - as at least half of the book is told from their perspectives - he can write and he can draw you in. What's most disturbing about "The Absent One" is just how much. You experience their excitement and heightened emotions so vividly that you catch yourself thinking "wtf is going on here?" It's sick, it's disturbing, and it's brilliant story-telling.Okay, four stars.
    • 3/5
      Not nearly as The Keeper of Lost Causes. Now I am less likely to read his other writing. He needed a better editor for this one.
    • 4/5
      As a reader who has spent decades reading books by and about white men, I really did enjoy this book. It was fun reading a crime thriller set in a country other than Britain or the US. The story was interesting and presented a set of truly bad 'bad guys' with just enough of a twist that one might root for the investigator or for the least bad baddie.
      However, as a woman, I found Carl rather hard to like. He's so unprofessional in his relations with his female coworkers that I lost a lot of respect for him right from the start. Certainly it is not just Danish investigators who act sexist at work, but because the reader is seeing through Carl's perspective a lot, we get to 'enjoy' his admiration of his assistant's butt and the way he treats he as if she is incompetent simply because she is female. I have only read this one book in this series, so maybe Carl is just as awful to everyone, but in this book he comes across as sexist.
      I also have issues with Assad, Carl's trusty non-white companion, a sort of modern, Middle-Eastern version of Tanto, available for comic relief and to say just the right things at just the right times to land both him and Carl in deep trouble. Assad adds to the racial diversity of the story, just as the Somali no-quite-slaves and the Asian laundry girls do, but the way Assad's character was portrayed bugged me.
      Last in my litany of gripes was the bit about how Carl and Assad land themselves in the grand predicament we all know by halfway through the book has to happen. Rabid fox? Deadly crossbow toys? Potentially deadly hunt? Of course our 'hero' has to land himself in the middle of it somehow. But the sudden bout of impatience, blind assumptions, and stupidity that causes Carl to be led by Assad into that hunt seem awfully contrived. Surely there could have been other, more evidence-based reasons these two men could have decided a sneaky visit to the hunt was justified.
      Still, I did like this book, enough to only dock one star from its rating here. And, I might read other books by this author, if only because I still like reading foreign crime thrillers enough to forgive Carl's many shortcomings.
    • 4/5
      This book begins with a case file that appears inexplicably on Carl's desk. Strangely, it's a closed case, with a conviction already in place. Two siblings were murdered, and a student at a prestigious boarding school confessed. So why should Carl bother with it? But he gets intrigued and discovers that the supposed killer was part of a rich kids' gang. The more he digs, the more he suspects the whole gang. But by now they've made their own millions and are roaming the upper echelons of Danish society.
    • 4/5
      Copenhagen Department Q has another cold case to solve - brutal double murder of a brother and sister 20 years ago. They find out that Kimmie, a homeless woman, holds the key but they need to track her down. Violent characters who hide behind their money are suspects. A bit long-winded but suspenseful and an insightful look at ruthless people. Can be read as standalone. Looking forward to next book & recommended to those who love Nordic thrillers.
    • 3/5
      This is my first book by Jussi Adler-Olsen and I believe that I will read another book by this author one day.

      The beginning of this story is rather slow and I had some trouble with getting into it. I couldn’t truly involved into the plot. But after a while I really enjoyed the whole thing.

      The plot is very good. Even though we know from the beginning who are the killers, there are so many other questions and twists in plot that once you get into the story, you can’t stop reading it. The whole idea may not be the most innovative but it’s well executed and developed.

      However, in my opinion one of the best things about this book is Kimmie. At first I underestimated her importance for the story. But later on I noticed the whole complexity of her character. She is such a complicated, ambiguous, tormented person. Definitely one of the best and most interesting characters I found in a book lastly.

      I also quite like Carl Mørck after getting used to him. He may not be the most distinguish hero (to me he is a lot like some other detectives I read about) but nice to follow and likeable after all.

      This my by my first book by this author but, like I already said, probably not my last one.
    • 4/5
      The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is a worthy follow-up to the debut Department Q novel, Keeper of Lost Causes. Copenhagen's Department Q handles cold cases and is headed up by ornery Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Morck (they apparently like long job titles; at one point his sidekick Assad is referred to as "Assistant Assistant Superintendent"). This time a file mysteriously appears on Morck's desk regarding the 1987 murder of a teenage brother and sister in a summer cottage. It appears to have been done by a gang of privileged boarding school friends, out of which only the poorest of them confessed and went to prison. The rest went on to become extremely successful in the business world based on their high level connections. All except Kimmie, the one girl in the gang who is now homeless but far from helpless, and not happy at all with the rest of them. Morck and the Syrian Assad are joined by obstreperous Rose, who constantly spars with Carl but uncovers key information. The gang's activities may be even more extensive than first supposed. But why are they all afraid of Kimmie?There is a fairly high degree of sadism and creepiness in this one, but for me it was well-leavened by the humor, hijinks and doggedness of Carl, Assad and Rose, as they deal with office politics and a high-up attempt to squelch the investigation. The series also features Carl's awkward efforts at romance with a therapist, and his struggles with his guilt over a partner who was paralyzed in a disastrous ambush. The first two in this Scandicrime series have been impressive, and I'm now looking forward to reading the third.
    • 4/5
      A Department Q novel. Carl Morck, again with his assistant Assad, in Copenhagen. A new character is added, another assistant for Carl, named Rose, who usually annoys him no end.I was reading this file a few days ago, and noticed that I had written quite favorably about the first book of this series, and said I wanted to read the new books when they were published. So, I checked out the library list and ordered this book, the second Morck book.The file of a 20 year old crime mysteriously appears on Mork's desk, so he starts looking into it. Twenty years ago, a young brother and sister were brutally murdered in a summer cottage. Nine years later, a young man confesses to the killings and he is still serving his sentence. He was part of a group of young students, but he came from a much less well-to-do family that the others. It seems clear that the whole group committed the crime together and that the more common one was paid off to take the blame. But, what happened that this did not occur for nine years? Was the one member of the group who has died killed by the others; or, is he the absent one, of the book's title? And why is the only woman of the group now living as a street-person, even though she has a very large amount of cash stashed in her residence? She seems intent on some kind of revenge or punishment against the other survivors of the group, and they are trying to locate her.
    • 4/5
      Adler-Olsen is sure to become popular with fans of Stieg Larson. This book is the second in the series and it was a great read. Being of Danish heritage, it did disturb me to think that Danish society may actually have people this evil in high places. You will not be disappointed in these books, but I encourage you to start with the first novel (The Keeper of Lost Causes) as there are storylines that carry forward from that book in the second one.
    • 2/5
      This was chosen because I enjoyed the author's first book so much that he made it to my favourite authors list. This one did not measure up: the storyline was nonsense and filled with gratuitous violence. Not my kind of mystery. Very disappointing.
    • 4/5
      Detective Carl Morck, the head of Department Q, finds a tweny year old case file on his desk. The problem with it is that the case was solved and a person was found guilty. The case revolves around the murder of a brother and sister who were brutally murdered while they were staying at their family summer camp. At the time, suspicions landed on a group of wealthy spoiled kids who were known at the local boarding school for their sadistic behavior. Carl also finds that there are a few other murders and brutal attacks that are attributed to the gang. He begins to look into the case and finds that the members of the gang have become very wealthy upper society stars. The one exception is the one girl in the group, Kimmie, who seems to have disappeared. In face, Kimmie has become a revenging angel and is hell bent on destroying the other members of the group. Carl needs to find and stop her before she finds and stops all of the others. This was a great book. It was suspenseful and very well written. It picks up Carl's story right where it left off in the "Keeper of Lost Causes" and continues his story. I enjoy Carl a lot and look forward to the next Department Q mystery.
    • 4/5
      Carl and Assad are at it again. This time trying to solve a series of brutal attacks dating back to the "school days" of some very powerful people. Sex, power, corruption, and a mysterious woman named "Kimmie" will remind readers of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Samantha Cody and Dub Walker thriller series.
    • 4/5
      This is the second in the Dept Q series with Carl Morck as the lead detective. He's a very compelling character and in this volume he's assisted by Assad and a new secretary Rose. The story is about a groups of friends from an elite boarding school who enjoy sadistic rituals involving beating up and murdering strangers. It gets a little far fetched at the end which is why I did not rate it as high as the first Dept Q book. Worth reading.
    • 4/5
      Whew, the violence in this second Department Q thriller is completely overwhelming. Worse than the first one. Worse than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Still pretty un-put-downable, though. Another character, Rose, is added to the Carl and Assad team. And somehow Mona, the shrink, has decided that maybe Carl isn't so bad after all. I hope they don't get married! The plot revolves around a clique of boarding school scumbags who devolve into captains of Danish industry, and the girl who is both victim and aggressor and is trying to upset their apple cart. A bit more reveals on Assad and a bit less of Carl's silly sexist thoughts. A worthy sequel.
    • 5/5
      Another great Danish crime novel, Department Q has another mystery on its hands. A twenty year old case that involves the murder of two prep school students. This leads Carl and Assad to a group of school friends who are now very rich and powerful and will do anything to stay that was.The chemistry between Carl, the grumpy and cynical detective and Assad, hired as a janitor but works with Carl and is quite good at investigative work. This is a crime novel that beats other crime novels. An excellent mystery, with great characters.
    • 4/5
      Another outing for Carl Morck and his trusty assistant Assad, as a cold case mysteriously finds its way into Department Q and quickly grabs their attention. As usual there are powerful forces trying to stop Carl from investigating, which of course only makes him more determined. Not for the squeamish as some of the violence is quite graphic, but Morck and Assad are a quirky and entertaining double act.
    • 3/5
      A bunch of upper-class twits start a "Clockwork Orange" club while they are in boarding school with tragic consequences for everyone. The Department Q folks must pick up the threads of crimes up to 20 years in the past to bring justice to Denmark. Good story - but not as riveting as the first book.
    • 5/5
      Morck is investigating a cold case that involves the double murder of a brother and sister. It also book involves a gang (or better yet, a cabal) of several men and one women who went to a private school together. While they were there, they learned that, because of the riches and political power of their families, there were almost untouchable. They soon became corrupt and continued to be so well into their adulthood. They also continued to support each other in their various illegal activities.We follow Morck as he sniffs around the double murder which is, of course, he solves by not exactly following the rules of the police department. He also is given a secretary, Rose, to help him with his work. He protests but is told he has to accept her which he does with his usual lack of grace. The interactions between Morck, Rose and Hafez are hilarious. Another fun read from Jussi Adler-Olsen.
    • 5/5
      The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is the second in the Department Q series, the first being The Keeper of Lost Causes, which was brilliant. I had been looking forward to The Absent One and was not disappointed by this brilliant police procedural, which returns with Department Q and Detective Mørck. I highly recommend reading Keeper of Lost Causes first before jumping into The Absent One as Adler-Olsen builds his character development through the series. My only regret is they books are not translated fast enough into English. For fans of Scandinavian noir, I highly recommend Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series.
    • 4/5
      Ein ziemlich brutaler Fall: Von Anfang an ist klar, wer die Mörder sind: Eine Clique Jugendlicher, mit dem Silberlöffel im Mund geboren, die zum Zeitvertreib Menschen quälen und auch töten. Nun, als Erwachsene, führen drei von ihnen ein erfolgreiches Leben, einer ist im Gefängnis, einer tot und das damals beteiligte Mädchen lebt auf der Straße.Nun kommen mehrere Aspekte zusammen: Mørck rollt den Fall neu auf und Kimmi wird von ihren alten Freunden heimgesucht. So ist klar:Irgendwie wird das Lügengebilde einstürzen- aber wie?Als Leserin/ Hörerin ist man schon sehr auf Kimmis Seite, wünscht sich fast, das ihr Rachefeldzug Erfolg hat, wohl vergessend, dass sie eine brutale Täterin war. es ist auf jeden Fall ein sehr spannender Krimi - obwohl (oder gerade weil) man die Täter kennt.
    • 4/5
      A cold case file mysteriously appears on Carl Mørck's desk and when nobody wants to admit to leaving it there, Carl and shifty Assad gets to go hunting for the perpetrators of a series of assaults and murders. After a somewhat unlikely plotline in the first book in this series, I shouldn't have been surprised that the plotline of this one too beggars belief a little. Adler-Olsen seems to pick only psychologically unstable characters for his bad guys, and, although many writers who use this device use it as a reason for the denouement to be a surprise, Adler-Olsen escapes the same trap because the resolution to the mystery isn't that the perps are disturbed - that's made clear from page one - so the actual storyline is how Department Q can catch the baddies.As in the previous installment, it is our main characters Mørck and Assad that are the stars - their completely different personalities and temperaments give rise to quite a few hilarious moments and there's just no way not to be charmed by them. My only caveat is the new assistant, Rose, but mainly because I can't really get a feel for her role in the group yet, which will hopefully be made clear in future installments. Beware for a substantial amount of torture in this one, and if you prefer to avoid gruesome mysteries, I'd suggest staying away from this one.
    • 4/5
      Spannung, obwohl man die Täter bereits zu Beginn kennt? Mitgefühl für eine brutale Gewalttäterin? Witz und Ironie in einem Thriller, dessen Hauptthema das abgrundtief Böse zu sein scheint? Für das neue Buch von Jussi Adler-Olsen kein Widerspruch.
      Wieder nimmt sich Carl Morck eines alten Falles an, obwohl dieser aufgeklärt scheint. Ein Mann wurde für den Tod eines Geschwisterpaares verurteilt und sitzt nach vielen Jahren noch immer hinter Gittern. Doch jemand scheint Zweifel an dieser Lösung zu haben, denn die Akte wurde auf unbekannte Weise auf Morcks Schreibtisch deponiert. Als man bereits zu Beginn versucht, seine Ermittlungen zu unterbinden, erwacht sein Widerspruchsgeist und er intensiviert seine Nachforschungen erst recht und landet bald in den höchsten Kreisen der Gesellschaft.
      Man weiß bereits zu Beginn, wer für die Morde verantwortlich ist, ohne jedoch die Hintergründe zu kennen, die dazu führten. Nach und nach erfährt man die Einzelheiten und voller Entsetzen verfolgt man, wie Kimmie, die einzige Frau in einer Clique mit fünf krankhaft gewalttätigen Männern zu der wurde, die sie heute ist. Obwohl sie selbst nicht weniger brutal und grausam ist als ihre Freunde, ist man doch voller Mitgefühl für diesen Menschen, der ein Ausmaß an Kälte und Lieblosigkeit erleiden musste, das man seinem ärgsten Feind nicht wünscht.
      Wie in seinem ersten Fall ermittelt Morck gemeinsam mit seinem Assistenten Assad, der zusammen mit Rose, der neuen und von Morck verabscheuten Sekretärin, wieder für manch witzige Einlage sorgt. Auch die Beziehung zu Mona Ibsen, der Polizeipsychologin macht Fortschritte: Sie geht mit ihm essen, was bei Morck nicht nur für Freude sorgt...
      Spannend, witzig, brutal, kritisch - eine wirklich gelungener Thriller!
    • 4/5
      Second book in the Department Q series, Carl Mørck returns to follow a cold case, where the convicted killer might actually be innocent. Adler-Olsen can paint the most horrific murderers, and he doesn’t fail to continue that trend here. Hard to read at times, but compelling and complex. His characterization of the murderers is impressive and convincing.
    • 3/5
      Interesting to see Carl Mørkes relationships with his somewhat irregular colleagues develop. The plot was a touch far fetched, I thought, relying on the untouchableness of the "elite" group; and there was no real explanation as to why the group behaved in the way they did. The plots unfolding cleverly flirted with each of the potential protagonists to misdirect, but everything happened as expected in the end. An "entertaining" read even if you do feel voyeuristically mucky after.
    • 4/5
      READ IN DUTCH

      I’ve read the first book in the Q-series years ago, but somehow there never seemed to be time to read this second book by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. After reading I can’t believe I’ve waited so long. It was a wonderful read. I’m not really into thrillers lately, but I liked this one a lot, and am planning not to wait another couple of years before reading the next book!
    • 4/5
      The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen is the second book in the Department Q series and while I personally quite enjoyed the story, I can see why many had difficulties with it. At the heart of this story is man’s cruelty to man, and the perpetrators in this story are particularly heartless and nasty. While there wasn’t much mystery here, as we know right from the start who the bad guys are, the author takes his time with his story, slowly revealing more and more about this group of sociopaths.The Department Q personnel gets added to with the arrival of Rose, the secretary who Carl discovers has a reputation for being difficult. Assad and Rose hit it off immediately, but Carl and Rose get off to a shaky start. I found Rose a welcome addition to the group and look forward to learning more about her. The author is still continuing to drop hints about Assad’s background which will undoubtedly prove very interesting.The Absent One was very cleverly crafted with the author less interested in keeping the identity of the perpetrators secret as in slowly revealing cause and motivation. With well constructed characters, light touches of humor and a compelling story-line this second book has made continuing on with this series an absolute must.