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Cosmopolitan
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Department Q Novels: Reading Order and Plot Summary Guide
It's been a week since Dept. Q dropped on Netflix, introducing us to Detective Carl Morck, Akram and Rose as they attempt to solve the case of Merritt Lyngard, a prosecutor who disappeared four years ago without a trace. And if, like us, you raced through the series, and are now wondering when you'll next get to see them in action, well then you're in luck. While we're still waiting for season 2 to be confirmed (hurry up, Netflix), you can read what cases the unlikely trio solve next because there are 10 books in the series the Netflix show is based on. First published in Denmark in 2007, the Department Q books are written by Jussi Adler-Olsen and have since been translated and published all over the world. The first novel in the series, Mercy, follows a very similar plot to that of the TV show, except it and the subsequent novels are all set in Copenhagen. The next nine books explore all the trio's backstories, while also seeing them solve a variety of cold cases. All 10 books are available to buy in the US and while we would recommend reading them in chronological order, you could also start with the case that sounds most intriguing to you. So here all the plots of the Department Q books by Jussi Adler-Olsen. The first book in the series follows Carl, Assad (his name is changed in the Netflix series to Akram) and Rose solving the disappearance of a politician called Merete Lynggard who has been missing for five years. Back again to solve another mystery, Carl is presented with the case of a brother and sister who were killed 20 years prior. It appears to be a solved case, a group of boarding school kids were questioned at the time, and one ended up confessing for the crime. So why did someone leave the case file on Carl's desk? One day Carl receives a truly haunting letter covered in blood. It's a message in a bottle from two brothers who have woken up bound in a boathouse with no hope of escape, can Carl find them in time? Or is too late? Rita Nielsen is an escort agency owner, but she's now gone missing and it's up to Carl and the team to find her. But as they dip deeper into the disappearance of Rita, they uncover a string of crime going back more than 20 years. Three years ago a man disappeared after returning from a work trip from Africa, while the world presumes him dead, his family think differently and it's up for Carl to deduce what happened to him. However, what he doesn't know is that a 15-year-old boy who is rough sleeping could hold all the answers to this mystery. Carl is awoken from one of his deskside naps, with the news of a cold case. It relates to that of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared and was later found dead hanging from a tree. The team must travel to the remote island of Bornholm which leads them to a deeper mystery of cults and a string of murders. Carl and the team have a lot on their plate in this novel. First, Rose's past is catching up with her and she's struggling, as it's revealed she's connected to one of the station's most sinister cases. There's also the matter of an elderly woman who is found dead in a park. The case is extremely similar to that one from 10 years ago, but they can't find any connection between the victims. And then across town a group of young women are being hunted down. Oh, and Department Q also faces being shut down by Carl's superiors who are putting pressure on the team to achieve results. Over 2,000 refugees die in the Mediterran sea, but Victim 2117 has a link to the team at Department Q, with Assad finding the victim has links to a life and family he has long since buried. The team's paths collide with that of a Danish teenager who sees the death of Victim 2117 as the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous tendencies. A woman commits suicide on her 60th birthday, except Carl's boss doesn't think it's suicide but related to an unsolved case from years ago. As the team digs into the mystery while also coping with COVID-19 restrictions, it becomes clear there's far more to this story, and the killer is still on the hunt. After nine books, this is the final installment of the Department Q novel series. It begins the day after Christmas and Carl finds himself handcuffed and headed to Copenhagen's prison. He is being framed and is in grave danger, with a million dollar bounty on his head. Can his team save him this time?
Time Out
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘Dept. Q' locations: the surprising Edinburgh filming spots behind Netflix's new Celtic noir
We know what you're thinking: what's remotely surprising about filming a show set in Edinburgh in Edinburgh? Except, it's so rarely done as to make Netflix's new crime thriller Dept. Q a genuine standout. Most shows and films from Trainspotting to Rebus have used Glasgow as a stand in for the capital. The handiwork of The Queen's Gambit creator Scott Frank (Logan, Out of Sight), Dept Q showcases the Scottish capital is all its Georgian elegance and urban grittiness – as well as taking a tour of the countryside outside the city and further flung corners of the country. 'We filmed in something like 13 of the city's 17 council wards,' says supervising location manager Hugh Gourlay. 'There's such a variance in the architecture in Edinburgh: you've got the New Town, the medieval parts, the narrow closes, the wide streets, and the high-rise flats of parts of the city that that are not often seen.' The location manager takes us on a tour of Dept Q.'s Edinburgh. What is Dept. Q about? Adapted from the Nordic noir books of Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen and transplanted from Denmark to Edinburgh, Dept. Q does for the police force what Slow Horses does for MI5. It takes its name from a small group of misfit cops under the leadership of cranky, traumatised detective Carl Morck (Downton Abbey 's Matthew Goode) who are assigned to investigate cold cases in the city. One of the dusty dossiers Morck finds on the pile is the disappearance of ambitious Edinburgh criminal barrister Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie). With his team of waifs and strays, and some canny tips from his old partner DS Hardy (Jamie Sives), now recovering from a council estate shooting, he's soon tracing Merritt's footsteps and shaking loose some of the city's darkest secrets. Who stars in the show? Alongside Goode and Pirrie as the detective and the missing woman he's searching for, Dept. Q boasts a stellar cast of Scottish actors. Trainspotting 's Kelly Macdonald plays Dr Rachel Irving, the police therapist trying to help the adversarial Morck overcome his demons, while Mark Bonnar (Guilt) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) play authority figures with whom the troubled cop is soon butting heads. Alexej Manvelov is Akram Salim, a Syrian cop forced to flee his homeland who joins Morck's team and proves to be a sleuth with razor-sharp instincts. Leah Byrne plays Rose, a struggling cadet who gets the chance to show her skills on the team. The opening shooting was filmed in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh Dept. Q opens with a burst of violence as Morck and Hardy face an ambush in Wester Hailes' gritty housing estates. 'It's a less refined part of Edinburgh,' says Gourlay. 'We go from that – bang – and straight into the city's Georgian legal world.' Edinburgh City Chambers were filmed on The Royal Mile Filming in Edinburgh comes with challenges – cost, tourists, the Fringe Festival and Hogmanay – that have often made Glasgow a more practical stand-in. But Dept. Q bucked that trend by embracing the city – even its bustingly central thoroughfare, The Royal Mile. 'We filmed outside the Supreme Court in Parliament Square,' remembers Gourlay, 'and outside the City Chambers, where Mark Bonnar exits the building. It had to be done at the weekend, which bring its own problems in terms of the crowds on The Royal Mile, but it worked out okay.' The courtroom scenes were filmed at The Signet Library, Edinburgh The courtroom itself, where Merritt Lingard prosecutes criminal cases and makes some powerful enemies, was filmed in The Signet Library, a wedding and party venue in Edinburgh's Old Town. The police station was filmed at FirstStage Studios, Leith The police station and Department Q, Morck's grimy HQ, were filmed on soundstages in Leith – as was another key location that we'll avoid mentioning for spoiler reasons. (Suffice to say, it's even more inhospitable than the dusty basement.) 'Our designer is very talented,' says Gourlay. 'I loved the grittiness, the '60s vibe and the brutalist architecture.' Exteriors were filmed in a '60s building below Edinburgh Castle. 'It's a CodeBase that they augmented digitally.' Merritt's house is in Dirleton in East Lothian A few early glimpses of Merritt's home reveal an edifice as foreboding as the lawyer herself. The location was an old military facility outside the city. 'It's an old World War II radar station that a farmer had renovated and then sold, and it had suffered flooding damage,' says Gourlay. 'We ended up painting it to give it a more austere flavour. It has that feeling of Merritt's coldness.' The ferry journey was filmed in Caithness, Scotland The mystery of Merritt's disappearance hangs on a fateful ferry journey to an unspecified island with her neurodiverse brother. Dept Q shows both that journey and Morck and Salim's investigation aboard the vessel. 'The ferry [we used] runs from just near John o'Groats up to Orkney,' says Gourlay. 'We chartered the ferry for a couple of days in May 2024.' Dr Irving's office was filmed in New Town, Edinburgh Kelly Macdonald's therapist has some thorny meetings with Morck, with the cop eventually storming out of a session. The exterior shots were filmed on Melville Street in New Town. 'You can see Karl crossing that wide street with St Mary's Cathedral in the background,' says Gourlay. 'The actual office was in the studio.' The pub scenes were filmed in Staggs – aka The Volunteer Arms – in Musselburgh Dept. Q features two key pub scenes: one at Edinburgh's Greyfriars Bobby Bar, where Morck intercepts Bonnar's senior lawyer Stephen Burns while he's celebrating a successful case; the other, on the island where Merritt's dad lives. 'We actually filmed both pubs in the same place,' says Gourlay. 'We found a pub in Musselburgh with an old, traditional front bar and a more modern back bar, so we were able to combine the two in one place.' The Christian Centre was filmed at Mortonhall Crematorium Looking for clues, Morck tracks down the now-retired detective who worked on the original Merritt Lingard investigation to a Christian centre in the city. The real location? Mortonhall Crematorium, a '60s building designed by Scottish architect Basil Spence. 'It was initially written as being on the Royal Mile but it wasn't practical,' recalls Gourlay. 'It's got fantastic stained glass windows and a really interesting look. It was such a unique location.' Merritt's hotel rendezvous was filmed at DoubleTree hotel, Queensferry Crossing The investigation also leads to a hotel on the Firth of Forth. Here, Merritt had a rendezvous with a crime reporter who warned her that she'd made dangerous enemies. The hotel used by the show is the DoubleTree, a Hilton in Queensferry overlooking the Forth bridges. Another Edinburgh hotel, the nearby Dakota, was used for an awkward encounter between Morck and his therapist, Dr Irving. Egley House care residence was shot at Vogrie House, Pathhead Morck's investigations lead to a care facility where Merritt's brother was sent to live after her disappearance. The real venue is 'an old mansion house that's now owned by Midlothian Council,' says the location manager. 'We made it look like a clinic, institutional but richer than it is. We filmed the hospital where DS Hardy is being treated there too.' The climbing accident was filmed at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena This world-class climbing centre just to the west of the city hosts a key death scene in the show. 'It's an old quarry that was converted into a climbing centre with a roof,' explains Gourlay. 'In the early versions of the script, it was meant to be a climbing centre in the Highlands, but we moved it closer to Edinburgh.' When is Dept. Q streaming? All nine episodes are streaming on Netflix now. . .
Time of India
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
New on Netflix This Week (May 26–31): From Dept. Q to Mad Unicorn, 9 fresh binge bombs you'll regret sleeping on
New on Netflix This Week (May 26–31): Brace yourselves, couch potatoes and streaming savants. Netflix just restocked the shelves of your emotional refrigerator and the menu? Juicy, mysterious, hilarious, deadly, and oh-so bingeable. This week's lineup is hotter than your ex's Instagram after a breakup. Here's everything dropping from May 26 to 31 that you'll want to cancel plans for. Ready, set, obsess. 1. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (May 26) Plot twist: The pill that gave you headache relief in the '80s? Yeah, it gave Chicago a massive case of trust issues. At least seven people died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol, and the world hasn't looked at a medicine cabinet the same way since. From the creators behind Conversations with a Killer and Shadow of Truth, this deep dive questions whether the real killer was ever found… or whether a sinister cover-up is hiding in plain sight. 2. Mike Birbiglia: The Good Life (May 26) Ah, Mike's back, and this time, he's unpacking the chaotic joys of marriage and parenting. Why do kids' birthday parties require a survival kit now?! Equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and sneakily heartfelt, Birbiglia drops truth bombs with perfect timing and just the right dash of dad energy. 3. F1: The Academy (May 28) Move over, boys. The grid's about to get a makeover. Fifteen fierce, focused women are taking the wheel and proving they belong in the high-octane, testosterone-flooded world of Formula 1. Expect fast cars, faster comebacks, and a whole lot of feminist fire. 4. Losmen Bu Broto: The Series (May 29) Tarjo's tired of being invisible in his own family's inn. Cue: ambition, betrayal, and a forbidden romance with a married guest (we see you, plot twist). Set in Yogyakarta, this series is dripping in cultural charm and messy family drama. Watch it when you're craving something slow-burning and full of secrets. 5. Dept. Q (May 29) DCI Carl Morck is your classic tortured genius: brilliant, bitter, and basically exiled to a basement after a botched operation. But when a long-dead cold case suddenly warms up, Carl assembles a ragtag team to take down corruption from the shadows. Think Sherlock meets Luther with less tea and more trauma. 6. Mad Unicorn (May 29) Cue your next entrepreneurial obsession. When one underdog launches a courier startup, the success isn't just surprising but rather threatening. Enemies multiply. Tensions rise. And somewhere between ambition and survival, lines get crossed. 7. A Widow's Game (May 30) Valencia, 2017. A man is found stabbed seven times in a parking lot. It screams passion crime, but what doesn't scream is his young, sweet widow Maje being the prime suspect. But darling, looks deceive. This one's a layered slow-burn thriller that'll keep you shouting 'WHAT?!' every ten minutes. 8. The Heart Knows (May 30) Warning: You may cry. Juan receives a heart transplant from a kind man named Pedro. Cue the plot twist - Juan meets Pedro's widow, Valeria, and falls in love without telling her the whole heart connection thing. Oh, and he's trying to save Pedro's neighbourhood too. 9. Lost in Starlight (May 30) 2050 Seoul: Aspiring astronaut Nan-young is grounded. Musician Jay is stuck in nostalgia. They meet, they fall, they dream of space and each other. But when she finally gets her shot at Mars, love and ambition clash in the most celestial way possible. Watch it when you want love that spans galaxies (and doesn't ghost you halfway to Mars). This week on Netflix, the drama is real, the laughs are loud, and your weekend plans just got booked solid. Pass the snacks and clear your calendar - we've got 9 reasons to never leave your couch.
Time of India
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Dept. Q OTT Release Date: When and where to watch Matthew Goode & Chloe Pirrie's British crime thriller series
Dept. Q OTT Release Date: A new detective thriller is about to land on Netflix, and it's not your usual crime story. Created by Scott Frank (the mind behind The Queen's Gambit and Godless), this upcoming series takes you deep into the world of cold cases, personal trauma, and dark secrets. Dept. Q will be streaming on Netflix starting May 29, 2025. What is Dept. Q all about? Based on the best-selling novels by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, Dept. Q is a slow-burning mystery series. At the centre of it all is Detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode). After a traumatic on-duty shooting leaves one officer dead and his partner paralysed, Carl is moved off frontline duty. Instead of a medal or support, he's handed a desk and a new assignment: run Department Q, a newly formed cold case unit based in the basement of the Scottish police headquarters. It's not exactly a promotion, it's a convenient way to keep him out of trouble while making the department look good. But while Carl might not seem like the perfect fit, that's where the series shines. Meet the cast of Dept. Q The cast of Dept. Q is led by Matthew Goode in one of his most complex roles yet. Chloe Pirrie joins him as Merritt Lingard, while Jamie Sives plays DCI James Hardy. The cast also includes Mark Bonnar, Leah Byrne, Shirley Henderson, Kate Dickie, and Kelly Macdonald - names you'll recognize from everything from Game of Thrones to Harry Potter. While the original books are set in Denmark, the series moves the story to Edinburgh, Scotland, and it works beautifully. Creator Scott Frank wanted something that felt both modern and gothic, and Edinburgh gave him that balance. Scott also wrote or co-wrote every episode and directed six out of nine. He's been thinking about adapting these novels for over 20 years. He worked closely with author Jussi Adler-Olsen on this one. With nine episodes in its first season, Dept. Q is one to keep on your radar. Sounds exciting?
