Welcome to November in The Reader's Den, Part 2. By now I hope you are eagerly turning pages, anxious to see what happens next in The Keeper of Lost Causes (published in Danish in 2007 as Kvinden i buret and in the UK in 2011 as Mercy). In my last post I noted that Jussi Adler-Olsen is the number one crime writer in Denmark. He is an international best-selling author and has been on the New York Times Best Seller list several times. His work has been published in more than 40 languages. So far only the Department Q novels have been translated into English, but his first published novel, The Alphabet House (Alfabethuset, 1997 in Danish), is due to be released in English in the United States in February 2015.

Often (and sometimes foolishly) critics try to interpret an author’s books by looking at his life. For example, although Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood, he is not a murderer. Yet authors often do bring skills and interests from their life and prior careers to their writing. For example, Stephen Cannell  (1941-2010) was an American scriptwriter and television producer of prime time crime dramas, such as Ironside, The Rockford Files, Columbo, and The A-Team, for many years before he wrote his first crime novel, The Plan , in 1997. His television experience is reflected in his books by the fast pace and cinematic scene progression. His books read as if you are watching a movie.

Adler-Olsen of course brings his own life experiences to his novels. Although he has a comprehensive bio in the Press section of  his website , I want to mention a specific aspect. He was born in Copenhagen in 1950, and his father was a psychiatrist. Consequently Adler-Olsen spent a large part of his childhood at mental hospitals in Denmark where his father worked. Adler-Olsen admits in an interview in the UK crime and thriller ezine Shots that growing up as he did had a big influence on his writing and his life. His youthful exposure to mental patients and their treatment is reflected in the strong psychological basis of his plots, whether it is the deranged perpetrators seeking revenge on Merete, the way Assad or Morck interrogate witnesses, or their verbal and mental speculations about potential motives or a suspect’s likely actions after a crime has been committed. No matter what bizarre criminal behavior occurs, the psychological basis behind it makes it believable.

I just finished reading the fifth novel in the Department Q series, The Marco Effect (2014, translated by Martin Aitken), and I can happily report the pacing and plot are still going strong. In this novel the action starts in 2008 in Denmark and reaches all the way to Africa and back. The sixth novel in the series, Den Grænseløse (The Boundless in English) has been published in Danish, but there is no English translation yet.

Another measure of a book’s appeal is its adaptation to other media. The Keeper of Lost Causes was adapted to film in 2013 in Danish under the title Kvinden i buret  in 2012, and it was the top box office film in Denmark in 2013. A film adaptation of the second novel in the series, Fasandræberne  (The Absent One, 2012, translated by K. E. Semmel) was filmed in 2014 and opened in October 2014 in Denmark. Both films star Nikolaj Lie Kaas, a Danish actor, and Fares Fares, a Lebanese-Swedish actor. A stage adaptation based on ''Kvinden i buret'' premiered in Germany in 2013. 

If you want to read some books by other Scandinavian crime writers, here is a link to a comprehensive reading list in a recent NYPL blog.  It's a great opportunity to warm up your long cold winter nights with a few good mysteries.

Thanks for joining us in the Reader's Den this month.  In December the Reader's Den features science fiction writer Iain Banks and Consider Phlebas, where a galaxy-wide battle is raging between men and machines.