Department Q book 1 · 2007
Mercy
Detective Carl Mørck, back at work after a shooting that killed one colleague and paralysed another, is put in charge of a new cold case department in the basement. His first case is the disappearance of a rising politician, Merete Lynggaard, who vanished from a ferry five years earlier. Also published as The Keeper of Lost Causes.
Spoiler-free summary written for The Recurring Cast.
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Book facts
- Author
- Jussi Adler-Olsen
- Series
- Department Q, book 1 of 9
- Published
- 2007
- Setting
- Set in Copenhagen
- Characters charted
- 4
- Chart confidence
- Medium
Mercy on screen
- The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013, film, Cinema). Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares play the detective and his assistant, sent to the basement to work through Copenhagen’s cold cases in Department Q.
- Dept. Q (2025–, series, Netflix). Matthew Goode plays Carl Morck, an Edinburgh detective given a basement office and a cold case nobody else wants, in a Scottish reimagining by Scott Frank.
Who is in Mercy
4 recurring or key characters from Jussi Adler-Olsen’s chart. Introduces Carl Mørck, Assad, Hardy and Marcus Jacobsen.
Lead 1
- Carl MørckFirst appearanceDetective heading Department Q
Major 1
- AssadFirst appearanceCarl’s assistant with a mysterious past
Minor and cameo 2
- HardyFirst appearanceCarl’s paralysed former partner
- Marcus JacobsenFirst appearanceHead of homicide
Also featuring these characters
Other Jussi Adler-Olsen books that share the most characters with Mercy.
- Redemption2009 · Department Q · 4 shared charactersBuy on Amazon
- Guilt2010 · Department Q · 4 shared charactersBuy on Amazon
- The Marco Effect2012 · Department Q · 4 shared charactersBuy on Amazon
- The Hanging Girl2014 · Department Q · 4 shared charactersBuy on Amazon