Jussi Adler-Olsen's "Contempt" on ZDF: How exciting is the book?

Created: 09/27/2022, 18:00

By: Sven Trautwein

ZDF is showing the fourth part of Jussi Adler-Olsen's special department Q. What is it about and is it as exciting as the book?

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At 10:15 p.m., “Contempt” by Jussi Adler-Olsen will be shown on ZDF.

This promises high excitement, because the books by the Danish bestselling author are a guarantee of first-class entertainment.

In the fourth part, three corpses lead the investigators to a women's clinic that was the scene of horrific experiments up until the 1960s.

Carl Moerck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, l) and Assad (Fares Fares) find the bizarre crime scene in a secret room.

© Henrik Ohsten/ZDF/dpa

Jussi Adler-Olsen "Contempt": The film adaptation of the bestseller

Millions of books sold in more than 40 countries, always a blockbuster in the cinemas: The series about the special department Q by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Denmark's number one crime star, is a success story.

After "Mercy", "Desecration" and "Redemption", "Contempt" is the fourth case for Carl Mørck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and his assistant Assad (Fares Fares).

ZDF broadcasts the 2018 film on September 27th.

out at 10:15 p.m.

The film begins with the scariest of all crime scenes that Carl and Assad have ever had to investigate: behind a wall that was added later in an old house, three mummified corpses are sitting at a set coffee table – their skeletal faces distorted into horrible grimaces.

On the table in front of them are their genitals in jars.

The fourth place is still free, as if the coffee company was not yet complete.

Author Jussi Adler-Olsen © Philip Davali / Imago

The trail leads the unequal team of investigators to a deserted Danish island where the unbelievable is said to have happened.

Young women were imprisoned and forcibly sterilized there - and this is indeed a historical truth.

From 1922 to 1961 the "Kellersche Anstalten" ran a home on the island of Sprogø for women who had come into conflict with the law or morals, or had been incapacitated for alleged mental infirmities.

They were subjected to cruel treatment there under the pretense of medical and psychological necessity.

So did Nete (Fanny Bornedal), whose fictional story the film tells in flashbacks.

Because she loved her cousin, her father had her taken to the institution and locked up there.

In doing so, he handed her over to a sadistic doctor, an unscrupulous warden, and a merciless fellow prisoner, who destroyed the young girl's life.

Finding out exactly how the tragic story from back then is connected to the creepy, walled-in corpses is Carl and Assad's big task in this case.

“Contempt” director Christoffer Boe is the third director in the now four-part series after Mikkel Nørgaard (“Mercy”/“Desecration”) and Hans Petter Moland (“Redemption”).

He fits his film well into the dark and - although partly shot in Hamburg - classic Scandinavian aesthetic with which the stories about Department Q and their cold cases are told.

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In contrast to the book, the filmed Carl is younger.

But you get along well with that.

The book series consists of ten volumes.

It can be assumed that further film adaptations will follow.

Anyone who has seen the current film version "Expectation - The Marco Effect" will get to know the exchanged team.

With Ulrich Thomsen, Carl has been implemented closer to the original book.

Jussi Adler-Olsen "Contempt": About the book

Jussi Adler-Olsen: Cover of the thriller "Contempt" © dtv

A missing persons series from 1987, linked by one person and their horrific fate: Nete Hermansen.

A young woman without any chance of a self-determined life, cruelly mistreated by people, is forcibly sterilized by a fanatical doctor and banished to Sprogø, the island for outcast women.

She cruelly takes revenge...

dtv

Anyone who knows Jussi Adler-Olsen's thrillers knows that you can't put them down that easily.

Tension is the order of the day.

This is also the case in the fourth volume about the special department Q. Absolute reading recommendation!

The other volumes around the special department Q, whose series by the Danish author is laid out in ten volumes:

• Volume 1: Mercy (promotional link)

• Volume 2: Desecration

• Volume 3: Redemption

• Volume 4: Contempt

• Volume 5: Expectation

• Volume 6: Promise

• Volume 7: Selfies

• Volume 8: Sacrifice 2117

• Volume 9: Sodium Chloride

Jussi Adler-Olsen "Contempt": My conclusion

High tension is taken care of.

Jussi Adler-Olsen skillfully manages to construct the story.

It seems almost impossible to increase the tension from band to band.

Adler-Olsen succeeds.

Cleverly constructed and a clear recommendation to read.

Jussi Adler-Olsen "Contempt" - Special Department Q / Volume 4

 Translated from Danish by Hannes Thiess

2012, dtv, ISBN-13 978-3-423-41318-3

Price: paperback €10.95, e-book €9.99, 594 pages – order now (promotional link)

Jussi Adler Olsen

Jussi Adler-Olsen was born on August 2, 1950 in Copenhagen.

He studied sociology, political history, medicine and film.

After various jobs, his first novel "Das Alphabethaus" (promotional link) was published in 1997.

Then followed some crime novels.

In 2007 he developed "Mercy" (advertising link), the series about the policeman Carl Mørck and the special department Q. He is rightly considered one of the five best crime and thriller authors.