A story based on the Jewish legend about how the world is always protected by 36 people follows the sudden deaths of dozens of humanitarians who each bear a bizarre tattoo and whose untimely ends are investigated by Copenhagen detective Niels Benzon, who would save the remaining protectors.

"The newspaper refers to her only as Victim 2117-the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous-and deeply personal-case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications...

"On her way home from a grocery shopping trip, Nina Borg is attacked from behind in a parking lot. Dazed and half-conscious, she hears her assailant ask for her forgiveness. Only later does she understand that this isn't for what he's just done, but for what he plans to do to. As a Red Cross nurse, Nina typically finds herself fighting for others' lives, not her own. For the first time, she's the primary target of a hit, and it slowly dawns on her...

Dagmar Marie Sophie is a poverty-stricken Danish princess whose annoying royal cousin is about to have her stuffed away in a convent. When she finds a wounded man unconscious in her garden, she sees a way out of her desperate situation. Leopold Ernst George Mortimer, seventh earl of March, and spy in the service of the king, finds himself on the wrong end of a saber and left for dead. He wakes up not remembering what happened...in the care of a beautiful...

"In the penultimate thriller of the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling Department Q series, the team must hunt for a nefarious serial killer who has slipped under the radar for decades. On her sixtieth birthday, a woman commits suicide. When the case lands on Detective Carl Mørck's desk, he can't imagine what this has to do with Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division. It's a tragedy to be sure, but the cause of death seems...

"In WWII Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt assumes the identity of a common shipyard worker, rowing messages to Sweden for the Resistance. His life depends on keeping his secret hidden-a task that proves challenging when he meets Else Jensen, an American physicist who seems to see right through him"--