INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX SERIES DEPT. Q In the exhilarating penultimate thriller of the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling Department Q series, the team must hunt for a nefarious criminal who has slipped under the radar for decades. On her sixtieth birthday, a woman takes her own life. When the case lands on Detective Carl Mørck’s desk, he can’t imagine what this has to do with Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division since the cause of death seems apparent. However, his superior, Marcus Jacobsen, is convinced that this is related to an unsolved case that has been plaguing him since 1988. At Marcus's behest, Carl and the Department Q gang—Rose, Assad, and Gordon—reluctantly begin to investigate. And they quickly discover that Marcus is onto something: Every two years for the past three decades, there have been unusual, impeccably timed deaths with connections between them that cannot be ignored, including mysterious piles of salt at the scenes. As the investigation goes deeper, it emerges that these "accidents" are in fact part of a sinister murder scheme. Faced with their toughest case yet, made only more difficult by COVID-19 restrictions and the challenges of their personal lives, the Department Q team must race to find the culprit before the next murder is committed, as it is becoming increasingly clear that the killer is far from finished. “Christmas is the holiday fast approaching in Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s The Shadow Murders , translated by William Frost. But it might as well be Halloween, for all the ghoulish deeds and wicked fiends the book contains.” — Wall Street Journal “This nail-biter offers the best of everything Department Q thrillers promise: compelling team rapport, boots-on-the-ground detection, masterful story construction, and a cliffhanger ending.” — Booklist (starred) “Opening teases don’t get much more tantalizing than in bestseller Adler-Olsen’s stellar ninth Department Q novel featuring Copenhagen’s cold-case division.... The climax lives up to the promise of the brilliant opening, cleverly connecting all the plotlines.” — Publishers Weekly (starred) "Every character seemed to come alive.... This police procedural and crime thriller has a stunning and deeply involved plot. The twists and turns will keep readers highly engaged and leads to an action-filled and emotional conclusion." — Mystery and Suspense Magazine “Award-winning author Jussi Adler-Olsen delivers another spellbinding thriller, The Shadow Murders , the ninth installment in his popular Department Q series… Readers will find it hard to put the book down because it is so intense, compelling and well done on every level.” — Book Reporter “ The Shadow Murders is a big, complex creation.... [Adler-Olsen] is an elite writer among a field of exciting Scandinavian suspense writers.” —New York Journal of Books Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark's #1 crime writer and a New York Times bestselling author. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in Europe and have sold more than twenty-seven million copies around the world. His many prestigious worldwide crime-writing awards include the Barry Award and the Glass Key Award, also won by Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, and Stieg Larsson. 1 MAJA Tuesday, January 26, 1988 Twenty-six days into the new year, a harsh winter unexpectedly hit the country with biting winds and unusually low temperatures below zero. When Maja saw the blanket of ice spreading across the backyard of her residential complex, she sighed deeply. This was the third year in a row she would have to change to winter tires, but, because it was just after Christmas this time, there was no way she could afford to have her usual mechanic change them. Luckily, an auto-repair shop had placed attention-grabbing ads in the local newspaper for a lightning-fast, effective, and super-cheap tire service-and as the shop was even closer to her son's nursery in Sydhavnen, she decided to give them a try. This was the reality of being a single mother. You had to make money stretch. The owner of the combined auto-body-finish and repair shop, Ove Wilder's Auto, was masculine and trustable, an archetype of the sort of man who has grown up with his strong arms buried deep in a car engine. Maja gave a sigh of relief. Everything would be okay. "We'll just check that all is in order," he said, and nodded to a couple of mechanics who were pointing a flashlight underneath a car raised on a lift. "It should be ready in a couple of hours. We're a bit busy, as you can see." No more than forty-five minutes later, she received a call at work. That was nice and quick, she thought happily when she heard the voice of the man from the repair shop. But then her smile faded. "I'm afraid this will be complicated," he said. "We noticed that the rear summer tires are worn unevenly, so we thought something was wrong with the wheel suspension. But the problem is actually wit