The Marco Effect: A Department Q Novel (Department Q Series Book 5) Kindle Edition

Scandi noir mysteries are my favorite escape novels. I just finished “The Marco Effect”, having now read five Dept Q novels chronologically.Adler-Olson’s first four books I read within one or two days.His plots are well developed and most loose ends addressed or reappear in the next book.My reason for giving this a 3, rather than a 4 or 5, is he is much too detailed and descriptive. It took me several days to finally understand what was going on. Once there, I was involved but I found myself skimming through Marco’s many unbelievable escapes from everyone attempting to catch him. Finally, the epilogue was poorly done. Olson’s insights into Scandanavian culture, however, are well done as is his subtle humorEven with this book not being as well written as the first four, the entire series is excellent for Scandi noir fans. I will move onto the next one.

In a region of Cameroon populated by people outsiders call pygmies, a Danish development project has gone off the rails. Then, shortly after a visitor from the Danish foreign ministry is glimpsed on a visit, the local liaison between the project and the Danes is brutally murdered. Back home in Denmark, one of the foreign ministry officials involved in the project goes missing. We've learned that a senior official in the ministry and top executives at a Copenhagen bank are involved in a massive fraud. Meanwhile, troubles mount for a 15-year-old boy who is enslaved as a thief and a beggar by a band who style themselves Gypsies. We know there are connections among all these circumstances. But Carl Mørck doesn't.Detective Inspector Carl Mørck and his unlikely sidekicks, Asaad and Rose, take on the official's disappearance despite being warned off the case. All three have a long history of doing exactly what they want—and nothing more. Carl thinks of the two as unstoppable: "The two of them together were like a herd of stampeding gnu on the plains of Africa. Heads down and full steam ahead, and if he wasn't going to join in, he'd better get out of the way." Until now, they've been able to get away with acting only on their own because they close cases at an unusually high rate for the Copenhagen police force. But now their boss, the head of the homicide department, is retiring unexpectedly. And his boss, no friend of Carl's, is moving temporarily into the job. To keep an eye on the three misfits of Department Q he assigns an awkward third-year law student as a spy, thus complicating the team's efforts to uncover the truth behind the official's disappearance and presumed death.As Mørck, Asaad, and Rose dig into the circumstances of the official's disappearance, more complications arise. That 15-year-old-boy, Marco, emerges as the central figure in the case. The boss' spy frustrates the investigation with inappropriate and unauthorized questions directed at suspects. All the while, Marco is on the run from the head of the "Gypsy" clan, who wants him dead for defying him.It's all a fine mess—an investigation that's far more complicated than it has any right to be. But, as the three hapless investigators in Department Q stumble toward a resolution, it's a whole lot of fun.

I do not think I will be able to finish this silly book, though I've enjoyed prior Department Q efforts. Maybe you have to be a Dane to appreciate the endless, repetitive tales of woe and difficulties overcome of the Gypsy youth, Marco, and his nemesis, Zola. Maybe the utter lack of connection between this and the beginning tale of a giant African financial scam by minor Danish government apparatchiks and their follow-on murder sequence will be as boring even to Danes as it is to me. And then the endless, repetitive, overly detailed, book-filling search for something for some reason about the dead man we met early on and his daughter. I mean, who cares? Why would we care?

Many plot summaries and analyses of this book already exist in earlier reviews here. I'd just like to add another voice to those who feel this series just keeps getting better. This one has many plot threads, certainly, but I never found them confusing.What I like about the progression of this series is the move away from the horrific and bizarre plot of Keeper of Lost Causes (I kept turning the pages but wasn't sure for awhile I wanted to read another - obviously I did) toward more complex story lines and, especially, the ongoing development of the characters of Carl, Assad, and Rose, both as themselves and in relationship to each other. We learn a little more about the mysterious Assad with each book (I especially love his intelligence and unexpected expertise in police matters juxtaposed with his often humorous struggles with the idioms of a language not his own, and his seemingly undrinkable tea). Rose reveals new facets of her quirky character in each new book, and Carl, irascibly likable from the start, becomes increasingly multi-dimensional. In fact, I thought pretty much all of the characters in this book, especially the resourceful and resilient Marco, were far more developed and interesting than those in earlier books. Rene is a portrait in the conflict between morality and greed: it's not much of a fight, but he has hints of gray areas. Boy in particular is utterly chilling, but even more chilling is how he came to be who he is, through circumstances that are not fiction. The door is even left open for the possibility that there is more to the utterly unsympathetic Bjorn than we might have suspected up to this point.Each of the books in this series would stand by itself, but I would certainly recommend reading them in order, just to have the pleasure of watching the gradual development of the characters.

Brilliant story. Love department Q and all the characters, lots of humour

Let me start by saying that I've read the previous books in this series and generally found them entertaining and intriguing. The plots are dark and dense and this fits with the Scandinavian noir genre of books that surged with "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" . The bleakness and the weird darkness of the environment and atmosphere of these books is not for everyone. There are nightmares in here. This book is no different in that respect. Adler Olsen is a competent writer. The Marco Effect however could have benefitted from a more dedicated editor. The book indulges in needless introspection and trivialities. As a diversion it was adequate. Is it great? No. Having said all that if you want to understand the murky waters swirling in Europe and get a hint of terrible things over the horizon…read it as a warning. This is happening everywhere, now.

3 stars. English translation.: The Marco Effect. Book 5 in the Department Q series. I enjoyed the previous books in this series for the investigative procedures in solving crimes and for the humour of the interactions between Carl Morck,the lead detective of the Cold Case unit and his two assistants: the mysterious Assad and Rose. The book started out with financial fraud between Africa and Denmark, and then switches to the plight of a young boy, Marco who belongs to a group of people in Denmark illegally who force the children to steal and even cripple some to become beggars. When Marco realizes there is a plan to handicap him, he runs away. Soon he is forced to hide and discovers the body of a man killed by his tribe who is connected with the bank fraud. This makes his tribe more determined to find and murder him. At this point Carl and his assistants have not shown up, and I was thinking I downloaded the wrong book in error and had to look ahead to make sure I was actually reading a Department Q story. Marco continues to run and escape his pursuers and after a while I found the chase scenes boring. The Department Q investigators are also looking for him, and Marco will not go to the police to save his life as he does not want to be deported. I would have enjoyed the book more without the financial dealings, and more about Carl's difficult home and personal life and more about his assistants, Assad and Rose

As always, a winner from Adler-Olsen

This is not anywhere near the standards of the first books. Marco is almost supernatural in his ability to avoid capture and death and there is no end to the story. A complete disappointment