Jussi Adler-Olsen's New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling Department Q series continues, introducing an intriguing new member to the Department Q team... Former Head of Department Q Carl Mørck has retired. That was the plan, at least. So when he comes across a disturbing audio recording, he turns it over to his former colleagues, who are struggling to keep the old Department up and running on their own. That is, until a new transfer unexpectedly arrives - Helena Henry, a Frenchwoman who throws herself into the investigation with gusto....but who may also have secrets of her own.
As the team realizes that the audio recording might shed new light on a seemingly open-and-shut murder-suicide case from years earlier, suddenly everything they thought they knew about the case is called into question. And meanwhile, a spurt of seemingly random violence - an explosion off the coast of Jutland, a young woman shot dead in Copenhagen - sets the Department Q team investigating a possible connection to a different long-ago dark and sinister event, one that someone has never forgotten.