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Adler-Olsen does not deliver in manner of previous novels
Book Review
By Derryll White
Adler-Olsen, Jussi (2024). Locked In.
Jussi Adler-Olsen is a Danish author who swept onto the North American market with his Department Q Series. The first novel (2007) ‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’ was different from everything available at the time as it featured a department of ‘losers’ in Copenhagen’s police department that solved tough crimes with uncharacteristic methods.
The eight volumes that followed over time advanced the Department Q characters and charted their steady drift away from mainstream policing (and bureaucratic support). Their saving grace was that they produced remarkable results.
‘Locked In’ moves away from that franchise, instead focusing on the head of Department Q, Carl Mørk, and his incarceration on trumped-up charges. After fifteen years of enmeshing himself and his partners with violent, high profile cases, the past has fought back. Someone has placed a million dollar bounty on Carl’s head and all his energy is directed to staying alive. Carl’s notable and charismatic colleagues Rose and Assad are mainly sidelined, and it is left to Mørk to carry the bulk of the action.
The story dialogue becomes flattened and less descriptive, more a narrative of Carl’s woes in prison. The energy fades, leaving the reader to wonder if this is the end of the Department Q series, dying not with a song but with a whimper. ‘Locked In’ trades on Adler-Olsen’s sterling reputation but in the end does not deliver in the manner that previous novels have.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the novel is Adler-Olsen’s description of Vendsyssel, Jutland, Denmark’s northernmost traditional district. He ties the windswept remote reg to Mørk’s stoic nature.
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Excerpts from the novel:
ADVERSITY – In his hometown in the dark north of Jutland, his father had impressed upon him that in life, experiencing genuine pain was all the more reason to hold your head high. Adversity had to be confronted, looked directly in the eyes. If there was nothing you could do to finish it, you either died or were locked in an eternal battle to keep it at bay. Carl had never quite understood where his father was going with these absurd ruminations, but right now his philosophy was difficult to ignore.
JANUARY 6, 2021 – Nobody was at their desk. Instead, they were all clustered around the largest flat-screen TV on the wall.
Pelle stared up at it, and for a moment his jaw dropped. If anything was breaking news, this was it – in fact, what was happening at the Congress offices in Washington right now was in a league of its own.
Vast numbers of Trump supporters were storming the steps of the Capital like rampaging bison, and the reporter sounded both frightened and incredulous. The riots had apparently been sparked by a speech given by the outgoing president, Donald Trump, who was refusing to accept the results of the election, and around two o’clock local time the pressure cooker had exploded. TV 2 News, as well as probably every other TV station in the world had gone into overdrive.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.