In the heart-pounding next installment of the New York Times and #1
internationally bestselling Department Q series, a terrifying
international investigation reveals the complex backstory of one of the
department's own--the enigmatic Assad.
The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117--the two thousand
one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But
to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets
off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases
division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous--and
deeply personal--case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about
the past, but has deadly implications for the future.
For troubled Danish teen Alexander, whose identity is hidden behind his
computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything
he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in
real life. For Ghaalib, one of the most brutal tormentors from Abu
Ghraib--Saddam Hussein's infamous prison--the death of Victim 2117 is
the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for
Department Q's Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past--and the
family he assumed was long dead.
With the help of the Department Q squad--Carl, Rose, and Gordon--Assad
must finally confront painful memories from his years in the Middle East
in order to find and capture Ghaalib. But with the clock ticking down to
Alexander's first kill and Ghaalib's devastating attack, the thinly
spread Department Q will need to stay one step ahead of their most
lethal adversary yet if they are to prevent the loss of thousands of
innocent lives.
