Detective Carl Morck has received a bottle that holds an old and decayed message written in blood. It's a cry for help from two young brothers, tied and bound in a boathouse by the sea. After floating in the ocean for years before turning up, the bottle sat forgotten, unopened, on a police department windowsill, before the seal was cracked and the gruesome message, written in Danish, was analyzed. Could it be real? Who are these boys, and why weren't...

International superstar Jussi Adler-Olsen, with more than fourteen million copies of his books sold worldwide, delivers his latest in the bestselling Department Q series, a perplexing cold case with sinister modern-day consequences. In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark. More than twenty years later,...

Academic advisor Dr. Lars Helland is found dead in his office chair at the University of Copenhagen. In his bloody lap is a copy of one of his postgraduate student's thesis on the saurian origin of birds. The autopsy suggests the professor was killed in a very ingenious way so Police Superintendent Soren Marhauge is brought in to investigate. Everyone is a suspect, and as the investigation progresses, the detective is presented with the greatest professional...

On the first Tuesday in October, Rosa Hartung is returning to her job as minister for social affairs following a year's leave of absence--granted after the dramatic disappearance of her twelve-year-old daughter. Linus Bekker, a mentally ill young man, confessed to her killing, but is unable to remember where he buried the various parts of her dismembered corpse, leaving Rosa with no choice but to try to move on without closure. The same day Rosa returns...

Kerrigan is writing a guide book to his adopted city of Copenhagen. Specifically, a guide to the city's drinking establishments--of which there are more than 1,500. Thus, it is a project potentially without end, and one with a certain amount of numbness built into it, through countless drinks imbibed. And that is part of the point: for Kerrigan, an American expat fleeing a brutal family tragedy, has plenty he wants to numb. The only problem with his...

Natasha Doroshenko, a Ukrainian woman who has been arrested for murdering her Danish fiancé, escapes police custody on her way to an interrogation in Copenhagen's police headquarters. It isn't the first time Natasha has lost a partner to violent ends: her first husband was also murdered, three years earlier in Kiev, and in the same manner, his hands broken. At the same time, someone tries to abduct Natasha's eight-year-old daughter from the Red Cross...

"Sanya was always the perfect wife, but after a breakdown at her office, it's her husband Harry's turn to step up. His proposal? A temporary move to Copenhagen, Denmark's capital city. He needs to be there to close a business deal and figures the change of scenery will do her good. Soon Sanya goes from hiding under her duvet to hiding in plain sight, a dark-skinned Indian American in a city of blondes. Within Copenhagen's glamorous high society, one...

Carl Merck used to be one of Copenhagen's best homicide detectives. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, with a stack of cold cases to keep him company.

Six days ago a paperboy on his route in central Copenhagen stumbled upon the naked body of a dead woman, lying in a fountain with arms marked with small incisions. Cause of death: exsanguination-- the draining of all the blood in her body. Lead Investigator Jeppe Korner, recovering from a painful divorce and in the throes of a new relationship, pounds the streets looking for answers. His partner, Anette Werner is on maternity leave, restless at home...

On her sixtieth birthday, a woman commits suicide. When the case lands on Detective Carl Mørck's desk, he can't imagine what this has to do with Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division. It's a tragedy to be sure, but the cause of death seems to be clear. But his superior, Marcus Jacobsen, is convinced that this is not in fact a suicide, but a murder related to an unsolved case that has been plaguing him since 1988. At Marcus's behest, Carl...