Andrew Caffrey
Scandinavia’s army of mystery
novelists are always keen to deface the pretty postcards of the Nordic ideal,
that this little paradise of social welfare has just as much drugs, crime,
corruption, greed, pettiness, and stupidity as anywhere else.
Jussi Adler-Olsen assigns himself that
task in the fourth novel of his highly regarded Department Q series, choosing
to expose a particularly unflattering portion of history that was not limited
to well-intentioned Scandinavians: eugenics, and more precisely, the practice
of forced sterilization of society’s undesirables, the mentally retarded and
sexually promiscuous.
Banished to the basement of the
Copenhagan police station, Department Q is a cold-case squad made up of three
oddballs: Carl Morck, a dyspeptic and comically lovelorn detective; his shadowy
sidekick Assad, with his unorthodox sleuthing and clumsy Danish; and Rose, the
flighty secretary whose organizational prowess belies a troubled mind. The
first three books were real gems, finely tuned stage comedy among the three
misfits interwoven with outrageous criminal action and taut pacing.
The fourth book, “The Purity of
Vengeance,’’ is written with a different kind of force and seems closer to a
political exercise than whodunit entertainment. The comic touch is not as light
or fresh, and the crazy cooked-up plots seem tamed by the more outrageous truth
that Adler-Olsen bases his story on.
Sprogo is a small Danish island that
for a portion of the 1900s hosted a reformatory for young women deemed a threat
to society because of their sexual histories; some were sterilized against
their will. It seems implausible from just a little time and distance, but
eugenics was far from voodoo science in much of Europe and the United States in
the early part of the 20th century. More remarkable is that strains of it
survived the notoriety of the Nazis, with the Sprogo facility, for example,
remaining open until 1959.
The publishing notes for “Purity of
Vengeance’’ said that Adler-Olsen’s father, a psychiatrist, briefly worked at
Sprogo, and his stories of the harsh hand dealt the women there seem to have
profoundly impressed the son.
The main plot follows Nete Hermansen,
a wild cub of a farm girl imprisoned at Sprogo at the cruel whim of a creepy
doctor named Curt Wad. He leads a secret cell of sympathizers that for decades
conducts forced sterilizations and abortions on those they deem unpure.
Wad is so off-putting he would be easy
to dismiss as a caricature, except that at the novel’s outset his organization
is poised to become a legitimate political party despite its obvious racism and
fascism.
Though shifting among three time
periods, the book is largely about the retribution Nete schemes against Wad and
the others responsible for her harsh circumstances. Though necessarily part of
the main plot, Wad’s political arc stands as its own story line within “Purity
of Vengeance,’’ and it’s hard not to feel Adler-Olsen has some scores to settle
with contemporary Denmark as much as its past.
In pursuing an exposé, Alder-Olsen
makes a trade-off. “The Purity of Vengeance’’ lacks the whimsy of his earlier
books. Sure there is still plenty of slapstick between the two detectives and
amusing pathos as Carl tries to fathom the women in his life.
But there isn’t much of a mystery
here; even the way Department Q seems to trip over a thread from Nete’s web of
retribution seems more a convenience for the storyteller than any great turn of
scene. The side plots that added such dimension to the first three books feel
shortchanged in the fourth, and the obligatory race-against-the-clock
dénouement feels less urgent than Adler-Olsen’s larger story.
So, read the book anyway. This is Adler-Olsen,
after all, one of the best of a very strong field of writers from Scandinavia,
and he has certainly earned an indulgence or two from readers. Moreover, if
this is his way of broadening, of branching out, keep going. “The Purity of
Vengeance’’ is an enjoyable and eye-opening way to learn about the real
Scandinavia, a story so outrageous that not even the best mystery writer can
make it up.
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