Sad to give this three stars: so far, I would rate the series a four star. But I had some complaints with this one. Much as I enjoyed Marco's street savviness, it got a little tiring by the end. One or two narrow escapes pump up the adrenaline but seven or eight made me tone deaf to the danger. I wasn't too crazy about the intersection of the two plots, either. The ersatz gypsy gang would be fine or the bank fraud (complicated enough by the Foreign Aid element) but to sew them together made for a lot of sewing things together and I didn't feel that the sewing was delicate enough: quite possibly it could not be. It was, in short, not a happy marriage. As always, the sidekicks are wonderful and it was fun to add quite a few camel parables to the store but again, as with the main plots, I felt that the police station background had far too many disjointed stories marching forward: the retirement, the reveals about Assad, Gordon, the restructuring. It felt like a lot of work tracking all of the details and I do not read these books for work. The ending was entirely too contrived on every front and felt "smug": aren't we all the good guys, really, after all? I enjoy a series as much as the next person but am getting bummed out by what seems to be the need to publish frequently versus waiting until the book is actually ready to be published. This one was not. I daresay if he had waited a bit this easily could have been two books and both would have been the better for it. ( )

Almost 600 pages finished in a day or two. Well written, nice story, no lengths or boring stuff.

Can be read without reading the previous ones in the series, though it wouldn't hurt. ( )

Another great book in the Dept. Q series, maybe even the best one yet. Highly recommended. ( )

2.5*

For some reason, this 5th book in the Dept. Q series didn't appeal to me. I had started this once before a few years ago and couldn't get into it & returned it to the library unfinished. This time, I tried an audiobook edition. Graeme Malcolm did a good narration but I still found this entry in the series disappointing. Carl Mørck just irritated me in most of the book... ( )

Another fun story about the gang of Dept Q. Pretty typical of the series, with lots of mystery made up of oddly connected events and humorous dialog among the likable characters in the gang. Some parts were more unbelievable than the other stories I've read, but I've really had no experience with young African killers, so what do I know?

If you've read any of the books in the series, you already know pretty much what to expect, and if you haven't, you should probably start with an earlier book in the series. ( )