Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark By Miriam R. Kramer Lifestyle gurus and sociologists extol Denmark as a Scandinavian wonderland, a nation that is possibly the most happy, or at least content, in the world. That assessment may be the truth, but it certainly is not in the imagination of Danish author, publisher, musician, and entrepreneur Jussi Adler-Olsen. He writes the Department Q mystery novels, a series that explodes like a bomb, flinging Denmark’s social and political dirty laundry, criminals, and cops into the center of the carnage. The author shares a common personal background with popular Norwegian thriller author, Jo Nesbø. He also parallels Nesbø somewhat in the way his main character, Carl Mørck, a policeman, dives into the seamy underbelly of society. Recently I have been ensconced in Nordic noir novels, so reading The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One, and A Conspiracy of Faith has been a fun way to lose myself in a madcap subterranean view of dirty Denmark. In The Keeper of Lost Causes, we first meet Carl Mørck, a morose, cynical detective, a true contrarian with decided views on government and police corruption, and a tendency to take naps. He does not play well with others and has an odd existence at home, living with his stepson and a closeted gay boarder while his separated wife lives in a garden cottage some ways away with her latest ne’er-do-well boyfriend. Yet he stands out in the police force as a stubborn and determined officer who diligently solves his cases. So the chief of homicide digs money out of government funds to create a department for him somewhere reasonably far away—Department Q in the basement. While in the same building as the regular police, it remains a galaxy away from the politics and…