Adler-Olsen (with a very able translation assist from William Frost) keeps twin plot clocks ticking almost in unison as two separate plans by two lunatics head toward their conclusion, even as Department Q races on separate fronts to end them ... Adler-Olsen is a master of intense suspense. There is really no way to guess how any particular scenario in VICTIM 2117 is going to end. We are talking big budget here, folks. Over the course of the past 10 years, he has been lauded frequently and repeatedly by crime fiction organizations, and books such as this one demonstrate why. It is a superior read.
In a feat of unparalleled storytelling, this eighth Department Q episode brings the full team back together as Adler-Olsen weaves el-Assad’s heart-wrenching story into a pair of relentless manhunts.
There’s not a lot in the way of rich descriptions or subtle character development in this plot-driven page-turner, but fans of the series will cheer to once again ride along with this band of Danish police.
Only a wizard could sustain all these plotlines and manage the shifting connections among them, and Adler-Olsen delivers inconsistently on their extravagant promise. But readers hooked by Assad’s fatal tango with Ghaalib or the news that Mørck, now 53, is about to become a father again will keep reading compulsively and do their best to shift gears with the grimly multifoliate story ... Adler-Olsen supplies everything you could possibly want from a thriller and much, much more.
