The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

I enjoyed the first in the Department Q series, with reservations, and liked this one equally, with some reservations. The premise of an underfunded police department trying to solve cold cases is good. The characters are great, and the conspiracy involving sadistic boarding school toffs here was good, to a point, but I found the focus on describing the sadistic things the gang did a little too close to the bone, shall we say? But that’s a matter of taste so, if you like your violence on screen, you’ll probably like this. Some good things going on in the background with our hero making a little headway in his non-existent love life.

No. 50 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2019.

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Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at his conversation school in Abiko, Japan, with his wife, he writes and illustrates textbooks for non-native speakers of English, releases Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, essays and a monthly newsletter  highlighting good fiction published in English about Japan. Saku’s Random Book Club is his latest project to spend more time with books.