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A Danish Ginger's Point of View

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A Conspiracy of Faith

 

 

Two teenage boys from Jehovah's Witness have been kidnapped back in 1996. Only by hard work and creativity, it succeeds the eldest to send a cry for help. A bottle message written in blood is found six years later in Scotland, forgotten again and after 13 years the two boys were kidnapped it will end at Detective Carl Mørck from the Danish Police in Deparment Q - the department for old cases. 

After many years in the water the message is almost vanished and only the danish word for HELP and the letter P is clearly visuable. 

Can it be a pratical joke from some kids or has it more into it?

While Carl investigates the case, horror will meet him and soon he will found out that the kidnapper is still active. 

 

Flaskepost fra P is a crime/thriller by one of the most famous Danish authors Jussi Adler-Olsen written in 2009

Directly translated the title would be Bottle Message from P, but the official title is A Conspiracy of Faith or just Redemption. Yeah, there are apparently problems with the name. Because of my dramatic taste I will be sticking to A Conspiracy of Faith.

Anyway, A Conspiracy of Faith is the third book of the series Department Q (At least they agree with that name!)

 

I don't read a lot of crime/thriller but I do love this series because the characters!

Carl Mørck is the main character and of course the hero. He is a grumpy middle-aged inspector who nobody wants to work with. Therefore he gets his own department with a Syrian cleaning man, Assad, who unofficial works as Carl's partner in investigation, and a punk secretary, Rose, with a bad temper. This odd group have had success with the new department but things are still the same. Carl's ambition for the tomorrow will be and almost always be; to put his feet on the table and take a long nap until he can go home again. 

Even so, Carl is good with his work and has a nose for things others don't see. 

But what makes Carl my favorite character is his grumpy, dry sarcasm. He is so funny I often laugh out loud! And Assad with his bad Danish can also be quite funny. 

 

Actually Jussi is just a funny author! The narration is probably on of the best - because he writes about a lot of tragic things, such as terrible childhood traumas and in the first book he wrote a point of view from a victim of a terrible abusive kidnap, but then you get to Carl's point of view it gets light and funny again. 

I really love how the narration always changes point of views. It is always a third person narrator, but you still get into the head of e.g. the kidnapper or one of the victim or someone else. You get to understand the kidnapper - know his history from his point of view. It feels authentic and it is dynamic to the plot. 

 

The reason I "only" will give it 4 ½ star is because in the two previews books as you go further into the plot the more is revealed. Normally I would get a wow-I-did-not-see-that-coming-feeling, but I didn't here. I new what kind of man the kidnapper was from the beginning. The only wow I felt was actually a revealing secret of the secretary Rose, 

who apparently is a bit skitzofrantic 

(show spoiler)

I miss a plot twist!

 

So it was "only" 4 ½ star. All in all it was funny, exciting and horrifying in the good way. If you love Scandinavian thrillers then try Adler-Olsen and be amazed!