A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen

from goodreads

I don't know what it is about the summer but that is when I seem to read all my psychological thrillers. Maybe summer is the time to be more edgy and daring, or perhaps since my summer mainly means going to kid activities I need a bit of excitement in my life, so I live vicariously through these books.

4 stars

This summers line up of Nordic crime novels did not disappoint me. At the top was Adler-Olsen's third installment of his department Q series. This is a series I love and each book leaves me longing for the next one to come out. While some elements continue from one book to the next, such as the shooting that injured the protagonist Carl Morck and his partner, it is not necessary to read all the books leading up to this one. You will not feel completely lost, though you will want to read every book in this series. Have I said how much I really love this series?

Synopsis

The book starts with the discovery of a message in a bottle in Scotland. The message was sent 15 years earlier from Denmark. The message lands on Department Q's desk. As Morck and his team decode the message it puts them on the trail of a serial killer who selects his pray from various closed community religious sects. The killer's new victims have been chosen and it is up to Morck and his crew to find them before it is too late.

My thoughts

I think this is one of the best ones yet. Although the first book in the series, The Keeper of Lost Causes was pretty awesome too. Adler-Olsen is really good at getting inside the head of the killer and showing how methodical he is at covering his tracks. Though the killer uses a lot of schemes, they are simple and therefore believable.

I like how we get to really love the characters, especially Carl and his work mate Assad. You care what happens to them and want good things for them. I like how we get to see Carl's home life so we can relate and sympathize with him. Though, in this book there is less about his home life than in previous books. Carl can be a bit of a prickly person, yet we see that he does have a soft side and does care for those around him, no matter how much he might complain about them at other times.

This book moves along fairly well and you can't wait to find out how they figure it all out. I must a admit I skipped ahead sometimes because I was so impatient. I wanted to know right then.

The translation I think was well done. I think the translator was from Great Britain, or trained in British English. There were a lot of terms that we, in North America, don't use, such as bloke and chap. As well, in the book the first floor referred to the upstairs floor. In North America we would call that the second floor. But that did not distract from the story. It was just an interesting point.

I also like how this book could be used as a social commentary for the state of affairs in Denmark. I am not really up on any Danish politics, but the reaction that people have when they see Assad (who is from Syria) as well as the budget cuts and money concerns in the police make me think if I knew more about it I would probably thinking, man, that's a good dig.

So I hope you give this book a try and enjoy it as much as I did.