image via www.goodreads.com
As I browsed through Barnes & Noble's mystery section, I found cliche after cliche of who dun it stories. Then I came across a few different books by Jussi Adler-Olsen from a series of "Department Q" novels. The first in this series is The Keeper of Lost Causes. The title intrigued me at first. Who are the lost causes? What are the lost causes? Who is the keeper of these aforementioned causes? I decided to pick it up and once I did, I could not put it down.Soon after you start reading you find out that the keeper of lost causes is in fact the protagonist, Detective Carl Morck. Morck had recently been "promoted" to Department Q, a department made just for him in order to get his arrogant personality away from everyone else in the department. The so-called "lost causes" are the cases that have gone cold in the police department over the years. Morck is the only one in Department Q besides his assistant, Assad.
The book is told from multiple points of view, which is confusing at first, but eventually filled me with a sense of eagerness that kept the pages turning. Each chapter jumps back and forth between Morck in the present day and Merete, a young female political figure whose case remained unsolved from five years earlier. As Merete's story progresses, Morck slowly begins to piece it together, though half a decade later. Eventually the past catches up with the present, leading to a chain of events you will never see coming.
If you love books that keep you on the edge of your seat and turning pages vigorously, then I would definitely recommend The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I look forward to the next installment in the "Department Q" series. I'll keep you posted!