The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Keeper of Lost Causes
 The Absent One
 A Conspiracy of Faith
The Purity of Vengeance
The Marco Effect

The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen is the sixth book in the Department Q series. We're back with Carl, Assad, and Rose in attempting to solve another cold case, but the twist in this book is that we've spun the clock forward years from the events of The Marco Effect.

There's a police officer who is obsessed with a cold case, to the point that he's lost his family because of his single-minded devotion to it. The office calls Carl for help, but Carl is busy napping and tells the guy that Department Q is much too busy for this case.  The next day the police officer shoots himself at his retirement ceremony.  And then Department Q begins its investigation, of course.

It seems as if The Marco Effect was one of Adler-Olsen's most well-reviewed Department Q novels, but you will recall that I found that Carl and the gang were relegated to side characters in that book and didn't love its more experimental structure. I want to hang out with my characters and I want Adler-Olsen to continue their growth.  This book did a tiny bit of that. I feel like Carl was much more vulnerable in this story - there's one scene in particular in which Carl is at a funeral and wondering who would mourn his death. It was a bit of a departure for the usual gruff, grumpy depiction and I thought it deepened his character quite a lot. But Assad and Rose's back stories are super slow in developing. I mean, especially with the time jump in this book, we've been with this trio for seven years - shouldn't we know more about Assad's mysterious past?

As for the actual mystery here, I found it quite satisfying. There were a lot of twists and turns at the end and I really appreciated that.  I also appreciated that we got to see more of Denmark instead of just hanging out in major cities.  The idea of an isolated Nordic island is oddly creepy to me. I have a few nitpicks here and there. These books frequently rely on stereotypes that don't translate well (lots of "that's a weird name" comments when they're all kind of weird names to me, hippies are obviously evil), but as I'm not reading it in the native language, I also think these types of things are kind of charming, like I'm getting a hidden window into another world.  There's also a few loose ends that are going to nag at me from this novel - at some point, someone admits to having killed a bunch of people and our Department Q folks never follow up on it!  It's maddening.

But, in general, I thought this was a solid entry in the Department Q franchise and I can't wait to read more. If I'm ever able to get books from the library again. :(