Book Review: ‘The Shadow Murders: A Department Q Novel’ By Jussi Adler-Olsen

The ninth book in the Q series (and my first time reading one), is an exciting, well-written novel, that starts off strong and never lets up. Set in present time during Covid, in 2020, in Copenhagen, has the cops on a search for a serial killer. It started back in 1982, when six college students were killed during a lightning strike and one woman survived, she claimed it was because of God. Then in 1988 an explosing at a car auto shop killed a 3 year old little boy and Maja Petersen, the mother of the boy, never really recovered from it. In 2020 she has passed away and it sparks something in homicide chief Marcus Jacobsen and he looks back at the case and notices things that were not looked at before and he has his team go back and look at other cases. It involves piles of salt being left at crime scenes. They soon find more cases and start tying them together and have a lead on a potential serial killer subject. When they figure out the pattern of killings and figure out another murder is about to take place, they have to figure out where the person is being held before it’s too late and when one of their own goes missing, it’s a race against the clock. It leads to a climatic showdown and a really good novel overall.

You can pick up The Shadow Murders in stores on Tuesday, September 27th from Dutton.