Jussi Adler-Olsen's Danish detective Carl Mørck and his Syrian assistant, Assad, are back with their third Department Q case in A Conspiracy of Faith, taking on an old mystery involving a message in a bottle. The note was written in blood in 1996, and the heading clearly says, "Help," but time and exposure to the elements have obscured the rest.
Mørck, Assad and the department's temporary assistant Yrsa slowly piece together the message. They track down the author's family, but the parents refuse to talk about their son or even confirm whether he is alive.
Despite their silence, the Department Q team discovers a serial killer who preys on the fears of certain religious sects to get away with murder. Mørck and Assad put their lives on the line to confront this cruel and violent man, but will they be in time to save his latest victims?
Adler-Olsen is well known for creating hideous villains, then giving them a background that makes readers almost sympathetic. The killer here is no different, with a horrific childhood that gives his crimes a strong motive. He's not just evil for evil's sake.
The main plot of A Conspiracy of Faith has holes--and several of the subplots seem unnecessary--but Mørck and Assad remain an engaging duo, trying to help sympathetic victims in a disturbing case that's timely in its portraiture of people who use religion to inflict unutterable grief on others. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, writer/editor blogging at Pop Culture Nerd