Award-winning author Jussi Adler-Olsen delivers another spellbinding thriller, THE SHADOW MURDERS, the ninth installment in his popular Department Q series.

When 60-year-old Maja Petersen passes away on her birthday, her death is ruled a suicide. But Marcus Jacobsen, the head of Copenhagen’s cold cases division, Department Q, is convinced that she’s a homicide victim. This is based on his experience with a series of unsolved murders that date back decades. Some were declared accidents, but Marcus thinks otherwise. At first his employees are skeptical and reluctant to launch an investigation. But once they start to probe into the matter, they see that he may be spot-on. Clues begin to emerge that Chief Inspector Carl Mørck and the Department Q gang --- Rose, Assad and Gordon --- can’t ignore or explain away.

"The cast is beautifully limned, and William Frost’s translation is exquisite. Readers will find it hard to put the book down because it is so intense, compelling and well done on every level."

The squad has been consigned to a basement office and gets little help or respect from their colleagues. Each member carries personal quirks that make working together difficult but not impossible. Rose has mood swings, Assad is hard to decipher, and Gordon operates on the down-low. But when push comes to shove with a case, they manage to sort out their differences and compromise.

One case in particular haunts the veteran detectives: an explosion at an auto body shop that killed many people, including Maja’s three-year-old son. Maja never really recovered from this tragedy, so it was easy to rule her death a suicide. But as they delve into the files, they start to see a strange pattern. In the crime scene photos, a pile of table salt is clearly visible. Could this be the link that was overlooked for so many years? What could this odd clue possibly mean? As the team investigates, they learn that salt has a long history in certain cultures and religious ceremonies. This is one of the main reasons they come to believe that these deaths are the work of a serial killer.

Marcus is confident that the killer, who has never been caught or even identified, is responsible for Maja’s death, along with many other unsolved murders. And his instincts tell him that this individual will continue to kill unless he or she is captured. Department Q comes to share these sentiments, and the hunt is on.

Meanwhile, Carl becomes the center of an old case against him when he was accused of stealing drugs from a crime scene. Also, readers are introduced to a rogue group of women who become vigilantes, righting crimes against humanity by those who don’t meet their moral standards.

In addition to the mountain of cases stacked in front of them, the Department Q squad is hampered by the restrictions forced upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic, which keeps the story timely and realistic. Furthermore, the plot is multifaceted: time frames change, characters have their own chapters, and sometimes summaries of the multiple storylines appear as the narrative unfolds. The cast is beautifully limned, and William Frost’s translation is exquisite. Readers will find it hard to put the book down because it is so intense, compelling and well done on every level.