After reading six or seven novels in the Kurt Wallander series, I thought I take a time off and explore what else Scandinavia had to offer. To my mind, Jussi Adler-Olsen's Mercy could just as well have been a spin-off. In any case, I felt right at home.

The setup is slightly different. At the beginning, Carl Mørck becomes the head of a new police force to investigate difficult or even rather hopeless cases – the almost titular Department Q. However, if you thought this means he will have a solid staff at his disposal, you were misled just as he was. There is one man, though, the Syrian Hafez el-Assad.

Given that he was chosen to lead this difficult operation, you might also have been thinking that he was some sort of expert or brilliant investigator. To be honest, I thought Adler-Olsen did very little to make plausible the initiation of the department and the funding (albeit limited) that comes with it. Carl is not exactly popular in the Copenhagen police (in fact, it's a promotion intended to get rid of him) and his neither especially qualified nor motivated for the task. All this made the opening act feel forced.

Maybe the fact that Carl is rather lacking is one defining trait of the series. What I did enjoy was how his assistant (is that what is officially is?), Assad, turns out to be the real brain of the operation. There are many things about Denmark he stil has to learn. Especially in the beginning I felt uneasy whether this would be a case of inappropriate stereotyping and he's often the butt of a joke, but he provides great detective work and offers surprising conclusions and reveals. Moreover, even if the dialogs are not the most original, the cultural confrontations sure are amusing at times.

It leaves us with two heroes, one terribly naive and the other rather full of himself. There is a dynamic between the two and its fun how the plot mostly progresses through their collaboration. Still, I expected there to be more bonding between the two. I think so far their relationship is rather shallow and I hope it's explored deeper in future installments to the series.

The developments and discoveries are very rough at times. There is yearlong torture, an ex-colleague left paralyzed and deeply depressed after being shot, nailgun shootings. There are fantasies of violence. There is a suicide attempt turned into a timed action sequence. I'm sure this is what many people expect from Nordic Noir, but it's certainly not for everyone. On the other hand, I'm sure there are many much more horrifying stories in this niche of the thriller genre.

I'm not sure how I feel about the conclusion. Towards the end it turns into this rather convoluted and frankly a bit silly revenge plot that might remind you of the scheme of a James Bond villain. Personally, I enjoy this kind of thing but I thought it constrated with the more down-to-Earth investigation side of the story.

Well, it was still good fun. I'm sure I'll continue with the series soon.

Rating: 3/5