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Thriller master Adler-Olsen: “I knew the ending from the beginning”
Photo: Mirko Hannemann / picture alliance / PublicAd
After ten novels, the Danish crime writer Jussi Adler-Olsen has said goodbye to his famous team of investigators around the oddball Carl Mørck. His most recent book, “Betrayed,” debuted at number one on the SPIEGEL bestseller list – a successful end to one of the most successful thriller series in recent years.
It wasn't difficult for him to say goodbye. “They are in my heart and sometimes they talk to me,” said Adler-Olsen, 73, in an interview with the German Press Agency. "The only difference is that I don't write about her anymore."
In 2007, the first part of the thriller series about Carl Mørck, the special investigator of Special Department Q in the Copenhagen police, and his Syrian assistant Hafez el-Assad was published. All subsequent volumes also became crime hits and the books were also made into films. “The first one sold best, most people read it,” said Adler-Olsen. »Many people have read several and I am grateful to say that some have read them all.«
The victim from his first book "Erbarmen", the politician Merete, who was imprisoned for years by a madman and freed by Carl and his team, even returns in the last book to take revenge. Because this time it is Carl himself who has to be saved because he ends up in prison because of false suspicions and now has to finally solve the case that has shaped his life: the death of his probably corrupt colleague and friend Anker. Above all, he has to prove that he was not in cahoots with him.
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Book cover “Betrayed”: “Six years ago I remembered the last sentence”
“I knew the end from the beginning,” Adler-Olsen told dpa. »But around six years ago the last sentence came to me and I knew it was exactly the right thing. Well, it wasn’t the very last sentence, but almost.”
In his books, Adler-Olsen has repeatedly described political and social developments - most recently he also dealt with the corona pandemic. »In my opinion, Denmark and the Western world have increasingly focused on the question: What's in it for me? I miss the society in which people thought about the bigger picture of society and not just themselves. Hopefully we will see the pendulum swing back to solidarity and more empathy between peoples.«
The writer has been working on an international thriller for several years, as he said. »I would like to finish it. But now it's time to put my family first. And that's not difficult for me. I love spending time with my wife. We now have two wonderful grandchildren. What a privilege.”
Feb/dpa