This is a murder mystery story, and police procedural, with a sub-plot about police corruption. It is set during Covid lockdown in Denmark. I haven't read the earlier books in the series, so I am not sure if I am missing something in the story regarding Hardy, Carl and a previous case. The characters didn't have much personality, only Assad was distinctive. The serial killer plot itself seems quite improbable with the villains, and some of the murder methods.

I have always really enjoyed the characters in this series. They are extremely quirky and yet care for each other very much. This episode has good tension at the end with a similar will they / won’t they save someone in a race against time as in the first book of the series. The next book is the last in the series and has been set up nicely.

My enjoyment of this was severely hampered by the dreadful quality of the copy. I have never had anything from Netgalley that is remotely as bad as this. At times, it felt unreadable and I have skimmed parts because of that. I might have given it more stars if I could have enjoyed it properly.

Department Q, the Copenhagen Police department of cold cases, has moved from their basement under police headquarters while the building is being renovated. Carl Mørck, Head of department Q and his three staff Ashad, Rose and Gordon are now sharing a floor in in the new Investigation Unit facility with Homicide, which is how they come to be involved in re-investigating a case from more than 30 year ago where an automotive repair shop was blown up killing the five workers and a young boy who was outside with his mother. The recent suicide of the little boy’s mother caused Marcus Jacobsen, Head of Homicide, to review the case. Noticing a possible link to a later case of accidental death which made him pass it on to Carl Mørck to review.

Once the team start finding this connection in other accidental deaths or suicides they realise a serial killer has been quietly at work, unnoticed for decades. Finding that serial killer might prove to be very difficult indeed since they have hidden their tracks so well. The investigation is also impeded by Copenhagen being thrown into into covid lockdown and Carl’s actions in chasing down the killer are also restricted when one of his old cases returns to haunt him.

This is the ninth and penultimate book in Adler-Olsen’s planned 10 novel series, so as well as presenting a complex case for department Q to solve, it is also setting up for the last book in the series. This may be one of the reasons it seems somewhat rambling and overly long. The first part of the book is slow as it deals with finding linked cases and following up with details and witnesses, before developing into more of a thriller type chase to catch the suspect in the second half of the novel. The characters also felt a little lacklustre and off their game and the humour a little muted with even Assad's English misappropriations and camel jokes starting to wear a little thin. Although the narrative is told from several points of view, including the killer, I never felt that the motivations of the killer were very compelling, but it’s an interesting idea that someone could get away with staging murders as accidents by making them all different and spacing them out so as not to be noticed. With the novel ending on a bit of a cliff hanger, I am looking forward to the final episode.
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I'd like to note that the formatting of the mobi file provided was horrible with line numbers and NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION interrupting the text randomly, words broken in odd places, some repetition of words and the letters fi and ff missing from many words.

I so loved the earlier Dept Q series but the last one and this one are pretty terrible. Is it a change of translator I wonder? There is none of the depth and the threads that connected the earlier books. The characters seem wooden and the dialogue clunky. I won’t be reading the last one.

The Shadow Murders is the latest,and penultimate, book in Jussi Adler-Olsen's extremely popular Department Q series.

Carl Morck is less than impressed when boss Marcus Jacobsen asks him to investigate the circumstances of the recent apparent suicide of a 60 year-old woman that he thinks is suspicious rather than one of the cold cases Department Q was set up to solve. In 1998 the woman's young son had died at the scene of an incident that Jacobsen had been convinced was a crime but had been unable to prove it, leaving him feeling that he'd failed her. Unfinished business.
The sceptical, and rather unenthusiastic, Department Q crew launch an investigation and discover that what they were convinced is a dead end case gives an opening into something very big indeed and they're up against a twisted but highly intelligent killer.

I've read this series from the start and really enjoyed it . This is just as entertaining but I'd say not up to the standard of the rest of the series as a few things grated. Firstly it needs better editing,the narrative occasionally verges into rambling dialogue,secondly parts of it are outright unbelievable. For an elite police unit Department Q's covert surveillance skills are outright pathetic and in one scene police are in hot pursuit of people suspected of very serious crimes,are told that they've just escaped using a means of transport that makes it obvious they won't have got very far...........and just drive away without even a cursory search of the area. In another scene Morck's behaviour is totally idiotic,not least as an experienced police officer and with others screaming at him not to do it and why.

I did enjoy it but the unbelievable parts jarred,and there were a couple more than the ones I've mentioned,too often Department Q seemed more like the Keystone Cops.
A great read but flawed and it's quite likely that others won't find any problem with the parts that irritated me. What it does do is set the scene for a very interesting final episode.

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
This is the ninth of this excellent series, and if the blurb is correct SADLY the penultimate one. Whilst there are some references to previous cases this can be read as a standalone story, in my case I have read the first two books, with two in my waiting to be read pile, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As usual with this Author well written or should that be translated I am never sure. Completely absorbing and engaging from start to finish, and a cliffhanger ending too boot. The characters are superb with plenty of mystery and suspense, and at times the tension was such that I found I was holding my breath, but with plenty of humour too.
On a number of occasions when reading books prior to publication my fellow readers complain of problems with the copy, I normally never do on the assumption that when published in whatever format the final copy will be nearly perfect. However this was the without doubt the worst copy I have ever come across with too many faults to bore you with, yet I finished and totally enjoyed this book, testament to the quality story.
Completely recommended.

This is the first time I meet the author and I am glad. Strange deaths are putting Department Q to investigate and think that is a serial killer. Great thriller, I really enjoyed the characters.
Thanks Netgalley for this book.

Another great thriller by Jussi Adler-Olsen! I got it from Quercus books via Netgalley and it will be out on 27 September.

Detective Carl Mørck gets a case of a woman who committed suicide but why? It has nothing to do with his cold case unit Department Q. However, after some hesitation they start to investigate and unravel a series of unusual deaths in the last three decades. Its turns out to be a race against time combined with personal issues and restrictions because of COVID-19.

This was another great one in the Q series. I've read all of them so far and this one was once again just superb. The characters have been developed and you know what they are like and how they will react to different situations. The story itself is one that is gripping from the start. It's very well worked out and you've got enough twists to keep you glued to the end.

4,5/5⭐

Department Q investigate a series on unrelated deaths recorded as either accidental or suicide. Subsequent events lead to a compelling case that although nothing to tie the fatalities together , they are murder victims of the same modus operandi and probably same perpetrator .Without evidence, a tangible link or witnesses, proving their hypothesis looks insupportable by departmental heads. With little or nothing to go on to substantiate, authenticate or justify further investigation the team go rogue in an effort to prevent the death of a potential victim. A series of events, facts and dates mystify those involved in the covert investigation with time running out for the intended victim and one of their own team. Initially unbeknown to them, a bizarre force majeure results in a fatal accident , killing several people, one survivor . Medical interventions ascertain psychological damage to the survivor. The collision of these seemingly unrelated incidents has led to a serial killer with no links to events or fatalities free to continue their killing spree. Complex plot and storyline, three dimensional characters and external stresses in the lives of the investigators all complicate a gruesome and blood thirsty end for numerous victims before any chance of the team solving this grotesque and puzzling crime. Many thanks to this author (every book guaranteed to be better than the last: where do the ideas come from), the publisher and Netgalley for this five star read.

This is an amazing story that definitely packs a punch. Jussi Alder-Olsen has put together an incredibly entertaining and interesting Thriller, which I found hard to pull myself away from. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series, and this book is no exception. I love the way the Author delves into the characters lives and continues them on in each book. Assad is definitely one of my favourite characters.

Detective Carl Mørck and his colleagues in Department Q have come across what they believe could be a serial killer that’s been operating for many years. With not a lot to go on, its going to take all their investigation skills to track down the killer.
Without a doubt this is a series that is well worth a read. Easily worth the 5/5 Star Rating.

Nonostante avessi abbandonato, con sconcerto e senso di tradimento, Vittima 2117, questo romanzo mi ha riportato con entusiasmo fra le pareti della Sezione Q. La storia è al solito complessa e godibile, i personaggi coerenti con sé stessi e insieme maturati, l'oppressività della pandemia ben resa (e se penso che ho iniziato a leggere i romanzo di Jussi Adler-Olsen proprio durante il lockdown per distrarmi da cupi, cupi pensieri mi viene da sorridere: è un cerchio che si chiude). E, sebbene abbia trovato forse troppo lunghe le indagini, finalmente viene al pettine la trama che riguarda Carl, Hardy e il non compianto Ansen - trama che credevo, dopo tanti romanzi, che l'autore avesse dimenticato.
Aspetto con trepidazione la chiusura di questo ciclo, e mi riprometto di dare una seconda chance a Vittima 2117.

After the major disappointment of Victim 2117, the Department Q gang returns with the ninth and penultimate installment in the acclaimed series, written by Jussi Adler-Olsen. One of the cornerstones of Danish crime fiction, the series featuring a team of cops investigating "cold" cases, that is crimes that remain unsolved and lay shelved in the dusty archives of Copenhagen's police headquarters. Department Q series has become internationally recognized not least because of the film adaptations that involved some of the heavier names in Danish cinema. The protagonist, the unremarkable yet competent chief of the Department Carl Mørck, is one of the few Nordic fictional detectives who have been fortunate enough to be realized on screen by two well-known and respected Danish actors, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ulrich Thomsen. So far, there are five films corresponding to the first five volumes of the series and the directors, including auteurs such as Christoffer Boe, Mikkel Nørgaard, and Martin Zandvliet, have respected the texts, delivering capturing crime/thrillers with gloomy atmosphere and loathsome villains, two of Jussi Adler-Olsen's trademrark characteristics. Nevertheless, despite the popularity and critical acclaim of the movies, the Danish author has stated in an interview he gave to the English Nordic noir expert Barry Forshaw that he hasn't even watched them as he believes that a two-hour film cannot possibly fully absorb and depict the plot intricacy of a book that exceeds 500 pages. Adler-Olsen's Department Q novels are the author's most distinguished work, but his oeuvre also comprises of several noteworthy standalones such as The Alphabet House, and The Washington Decree which are novels where the author sets the tone for what was about to follow in regards to the maturity of his prose and choice of narrative structure.

The author has early declared his decision to end the series in ten novels and his plan was to devote the last three books, The Scarred Woman (#7), Victim 2117 (#8), and The Shadow Murders (#9) to the characters of Rose, Assad, and Carl respectively. In each of the aforementioned novels the plot revolves around one of the members of the cold case unit and provides the reader vital information regarding their background and personal history that is crucial in order to make them easier identifiable to the reader. I was severely disappointed by Assad's book as I was expecting much more from a character that is one of the most compelling figures in the contemporary Scandinavian crime fiction. Victim 2127 was tedious, the story was over-the-top, and the antagonists completely implausible. Rose's arc in The Scarred Woman was more mysterious and intriguing, and even inclined some pf the readers to draw parallels between her character and that of Stieg Larsson's legendary Lisbeth Salander. In The Shadow Murders, Adler-Olsen pursuits to create a labyrinthine main plotline, while at the same time putting Carl in a tight spot as a consequence of the aftereffects of an old case that marked his life which comes back once again to haunt him and threaten his peaceful familial and professional life. The final result is rather disenchanting as in the first half we follow a complicated police procedural storyline that stretches decades in the past and concerns a multitude of cases that have been dismissed as accidents or suicides. In the second part, the villain is revealed and as we expect the story to pick up pace and become more of a thriller, we are eventually let down by a downtempo development and a plot which becomes increasingly excessive. Plus, the villains lack clear motivation, a rather vexing flaw.

The story begins with the head of Copenhagen's Homicide Unite, Marcus Jacobsen, assigning Carl and his team with the case of a suicide of a woman who dies of her own hand in her sixtieth birthday. The reason why this seemingly humdrum event shakes Marcus to the core is that the woman, Maja, had been involved in a nasty case of bombing that resulted in the death of her three-year-old child back in 1988. Marcus was one of the lead investigators in that case and his feelings of sympathy toward the young mother prompted him to delve a bit deeper into an irrational act of violence that defied any kind of discernible motivation. A freak accident or a criminal act? As Carl, Assad, Rose, and Gordon begin to search in the past, they discover a peculiar pattern that reveals itself in a series of apparent deaths occurring every two years for the last three decades in specific points of time. The investigation will be gradually extended to a horde of suspicious deaths that are connected by the inexplicable presence of table salt in the crime scenes. The systematic work by the members of the Department Q will uncover more details that link the crimes, however they fail to close in on a suspect as they lack the most important piece of the puzzle: the motive. In order to find it, they must look closer to the reports of the cases in question and pinpoint every detail that may suggest a reasoning process on the part of a cunning and well-organized killer.

The rationale behind the murders is revealed to the reader early on, seeing that the story is told through multiple perspectives, as it always happens in the novels of the series. Thus, we follow the story of a group of vigilante women who decide to take the law into their own hands and punish all those who are morally deficient and disrespect the law of God. We are introduced to some of the characters that compose the rogue group and we follow their point of view, witnessing the various ways in which they impose their sanctions on their fellow citizens for minor or more serious offenses. Some of the descriptions of the horrendous actions carried out by those moral zealots are pretty explicit and become borderline disturbing. If you are a fan of the author's work, then you are certainly acquainted with the graphic outline of the villains and their crimes, so you won't be taken by surprise with these parts of the narrative. As I have already mentioned, the main antagonist's identity is divulged halfway, so the mystery element dies in the middle of the novel, leaving the story devoid of charm and struggling to achieve proper orientation. I was tempted to skim through pages, especially in the second half of the novel, a fact that illustrates the overall lackluster feeling exuded by the story. Carl's sub-plot is barely present in the text, though the cliffhanger ending indicates that it will be more thoroughly explored in the final installment. Moreover, details of Carl and Assad's family lives are scarcely mentioned, even though there have been some significant developments in this field, as we saw in the previous chapters of the saga. And a final one: the humor that used to set the series apart from the works by equally successful Nordic authors is nearly completely absent, while Asssad's frequent misuse of the Danish language and the constant employment of camel similes that baffle everyone around him seem to have lost their wit and charm.

There were a few things that riled me in The Shadow Murders. First of all, by finishing the book I thought that it was like the author wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to write in terms of the genre. A police procedural, a thriller, a mystery, what? Department Q novels, as a rule, are primarily police procedurals dealing with cases lost in the mists of time, but there were several books, especially the first ones in the series, that flirted with pure-bed thriller. The multiple perspective narrative is a useful tool in that direction as it provides the writer with the ability to broaden the reader's viewpoint and accelerate the overall pacing of the story. Adler-Olsen definitely doesn't write whodunits as the villains are revealed early in the novels and they contribute to the telling of the story as the author wants the reader to become partaker in his evil thoughts and dirty deeds. Nevertheless, in the Shadow Murders it is not clear what the author had in mind regarding the nature of his story. Furthermore, the minimal number of pages devoted to Carl's troubles deprived the reader from a chance to distract his attention from an overladen plotline and take necessary breaths that would make the reading process easier and smoother. Another thing that made me angry was the customary finale that demands one of the main characters to be put in a position in which his life is threatened only to be rescued in the last minute by his comrades. I don't think there is a single novel in this series that doesn't end in such a manner, a monotonous trope that in spite of exciting the reader, it rather annoys him.

To conclude, I think that The Shadow Murders is one of the less compelling installments in an otherwise noteworthy series of books and if I had to give it an honest rating, it would be close to 2,5/5 stars. I was lucky enough to be approved for a free DRC, courtesy of Edelweiss and the publisher. It should be noted that the publication date for this book is September 27, 2022. Fans of the author's work should read it because it is a necessary step in the road of completing the saga, and in a way it paves the way for the last book that will be published in the next two years time. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to those who haven't read any of Jussi Adler-Olsen's novels as it would probably make them wary of his work. The Danish author remains standing as one of the most prominent representatives of Nordic crime fiction and a writer whose books have sold more than thirty million copies worldwide. If you don't know where to start, you should check The Absent One, A Conspiracy of Faith, and Journal 64 all of which have been more than decently adapted into the cinema screen. The movies are also a proper starting point for those who want to dive into Adler-Olsen's fictitious universe.