1126. The Absent One

Jussi Adler-Olsen's "The Absent One" is not the first "Department Q Novel". Events take place in Denmark with most of the action occurring in Copenhagen and surrounding areas. Carl Morck is a Detective for Copenhagen's Unsolved Murder Cases Unit, the Eponymous, Department Q. Although the author has written previous books in this series featuring this Detective and associated supporting characters (but different cases), this was the first book  about Detective Morck that I picked up to read.

Detective Morck works with very minimum resources -- he has only a staff of two. An overeager assistant of Middle Eastern descent and heritage who is not a full-fledged detective and a Secretary who finished the Police Academy but flanked out as a Police Officer, yet is highly organized. With these impediments in mind, a case lands on Detective Morck's desk about a twenty year old murder of a brother and sister. What becomes immediately apparent is that even though there is someone in jail serving time for this crime, he might not be the person who committed the murders, and might have been murdered or set-up to take the fall. Involved in this conspiracy are some of Denmark's most influential business people and a homeless woman seen wandering the streets of Copenhagen day and night in different outfits, sometimes dressed nicely, sometimes dressed in rags, called Kimmie. She has something in common with the businessmen who are trying -- or have tried -- to cover the twenty year old murder.

In some ways, this book is similar in themes with Steig Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". It discusses themes of social strata, the morals (or sometimes lack thereof) of upper society, the differentiation of people based on their upbringing and schooling.  Does this social stratification, and the fact that Detective Morck's assistant is from the Middle-East play a role in the way he handles this case? That's for every individual reader of this book to decide. Personally, I enjoyed the interplay of the morality in this novel against the foreign (to me) culture. Morals are universal. Good and Evil, and the Great, Wide, GREY in between, should be universal to all cultures, however, the way that each culture approaches them differs, and that interplay made this book very interesting.

Two things threw me off about this book. It is sold as a somewhat "humorous" or "funny" novel. I did not find any of the antics humorous. It's possible that my understanding of the Danish culture prevented me from enjoying the humor. Secondly, some of the translation seemed broken, like words were jumbled. Then again, it's possible that the author's writing itself is what is jumbled, and it comes out across that way in the translation.

Because of these two things, I can only give this book three and a half stars. I did enjoy the story. And I recommend it. Maybe others, will find the humor I missed.

1093. The Sanctuary

Raymond Khoury was born in Beirut and studied Architecture. These things alone endear him to my heart, because he not only came from a difficult part of the world, but he also studied one of the sacred sciences with the intent to go back and rebuilt the once great city of Beirut. That may not have worked out as he planned, but at least he did design and built a number of novels, including this one. And for a bonus, he gets to use his knowledge of Beirut as a main character in this story line. This is the first novel of Khoury's that I have read, and whether it is a good starting point or not for this author, I do not know, because I am given to understand that "The Last Templar" was a much better story. But I have not read that book, nor am I reviewing it here. I can only judge Mr. Khoury based on this work.

By telling you some of the plot points of this book, I don't think I would be giving away the store so bear with me.  I, personally, have always enjoyed, stories involving immortality, including "The Eight" and a book from my past, "The Boat of A Million Years". The other thing that hints at this is the symbol on the cover, the Ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail. The Ouroboros means a lot of different things, and has had many uses in the past, but one of them does bring us back to the quest for immortality. A hint of this is whispered at the beginning of the book when during the inquisition, a priest is entrusted with a secret from a man who falls prey to the inquisitors. This priest goes on a search across the continents and across the centuries for the missing pages of a book. But so do his pursuers who have realized what he has in his possession.

Meanwhile, in the 21st Century, Archaeology Professor Evelyn Bishop is kidnapped shortly after an Iraqi man contacts her about selling her some manuscripts. Her interest in this is simply as an archaeologist. It is right after the invasion and fall of Baghdad, and the Iraqi Museum of Antiquities has been raided. Many pieces are hitting the black marker and Evelyn is trying to ensure that these pieces somehow get returned to their rightful home. Evelyn's daughter is in town (Beirut), visiting to spend some time with a mother who wasn't all that involved in her upbringing. Mia was the result of a dalliance Evelyn had while at an Iraqi dig, back in the 1970s, back before Saddam, back before the Middle East and Beirut turned really dangerous.

Evelyn gets kidnapped, and Mia somehow is in the middle of it. There is a helpful CIA officer stationed in Beirut and there are the folks working for a shadowy doctor who is trying to get whatever that Iraqi man was going to deliver to Evelyn. It all becomes mystical, and mysterious with clues and puzzles to solve, as the past continues to enlighten us as to who the players are. Especially after the appearance of one of the mystery outsiders who is making a play for the manuscript and with whom Mia eventually hooks-up. Could he be working with the Shadowy doctor?

In many ways this is standard Thriller fare, but in many other ways there is an excitement underneath as the cloth is slowly pulled away to reveal more of the canvas. How are all of these characters connected? Is there something in this manuscript of very high importance? In some ways, I wish that the pacing of this story was a little tighter, and I also wish that a clearer focus was maintained on the singular objective of the 21st century characters. Because, especially after a while, the interludes into the past looked like random tangents going no-where. Once you established the main, critical, over-arching conflict of the book, it is not necessary to beat us with it time and time again. Maybe one brief interlude to either show us how the chase continued down into time, and then update us into the present. After a while, the past interludes got REALLY boring. But, you always come back into the present to see how the main characters were fairing.

In the end, a decent book that read like a quick adventure movie. I would recommend it without hesitation, and of course, I now have to read more Raymond Khoury. Three stars.