As of: February 19, 2024, 4:40 p.m
By: Sven Trautwein
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Carl Moerck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, l) and Assad (Fares Fares) find the bizarre crime scene in a secret room.
© Henrik Ohsten/ZDF/dpa
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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Jussi Adler-Olsen's fourth volume for Special Department Q can be found in the ZDF media library.
This promises high excitement, because the books by the Danish best-selling author are a guarantee of first-class entertainment.
In the fourth part, three corpses lead the investigators on the trail of a women's clinic that was the site of gruesome experiments until the 1960s.
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 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 is currently showing the thriller in the media library.
The film begins with the scariest of all crime scenes that Carl and Assad have ever had to investigate: behind a retrofitted wall in an old house, three mummified corpses sit at a coffee table - their skeletal faces distorted into horrible grimaces.
Their sexual organs are in mason jars on the table in front of them.
Fourth place is still vacant, as if the coffee company wasn't complete yet.
Author Jussi Adler-Olsen © Philip Davali / Imago
The trail leads the unlikely team of investigators to an abandoned Danish island where something incredible is said to have happened.
Young women were – and this is actually a historical truth – imprisoned and forcibly sterilized there.
From 1922 to 1961, the “Kellersche Anstalten” on the island of Sprogø ran a home for women who had come into conflict with the law or morals or had been incapacitated due to alleged mental weakness.
Under the pretext of medical and psychological necessity, they were subjected to cruel treatments.
This is what happened to Nete (Fanny Bornedal), whose fictional story the film tells in flashbacks.
Because she loved her cousin, her father had her taken to the asylum and locked up there.
In doing so, he handed her over to a sadistic doctor, an unscrupulous guard and a merciless fellow prisoner who destroyed the young girl's life.
Carl and Assad's big task in this case is to find out exactly how the tragic story from back then is connected to the creepy, walled-up corpses.
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“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 the Q department and their cold cases are told.
In contrast to the book, Carl in the film 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 adaptation “Expectation – The Marco Effect” will get to know the replaced team.
With Ulrich Thomsen, Carl is implemented closer to the original book.
Jussi Adler-Olsen “Contempt”: About the book
Jussi Adler-Olsen: Cover for the thriller “Contempt” © dtv
A series of missing people from 1987, linked by one person and their horrific fate: Nete Hermansen.
A young woman without any chance of a self-determined life, cruelly abused by people, is forcibly sterilized by a fanatical doctor and banished to Sprogø, the island for outcast women.
She takes cruel revenge...
dtv
Anyone who knows Jussi Adler-Olsen's thrillers knows that you can't put them down so easily.
Tension is the order of the day.
This is also the case in the fourth volume about the Special Department Q. Absolutely recommended reading!
The other volumes about Special Department Q, whose series by the Danish author is set 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 ensured.
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 reading recommendation.
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 careers, his first novel “The Alphabet House” (promotional link) was published in 1997.
This was followed by a few crime novels.
In 2007 he developed “Erbarmen” (promotional link), the series about the police officer Carl Mørck and the special department Q. He is rightly considered one of the five best crime and thriller authors.