A Conspiracy of Faith

Carl Morck and his assistants Assad and Rose investigate a possible kidnapping after a message in a bottle lands on their desk. Their subsequent enquiries lead them to suspect there have been more kidnappings in the intervening years.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.

This book is the third in the Department Q series. This series revolves around a detective, Carl Morck, who works on cold cases. In this book, a message in bottle makes it way to Carl's desk. The message is very damaged, and the team must work out what it says because it is clear that it is a cry for help. This message leads Carl and his ragtag team on a quest to find a killer.

The members of Department Q are a quirky bunch. Carl is dealing with trauma from a shooting in which he was involved. In this installment of the series, he discovers something upsetting connected to that incident. Carl's attitude can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but his crankiness makes for some humorous moments. His two assistants, Assad and Rose, have their own strange traits as well. Assad has something in his past that seems suspicious, but he is a very entertaining character. His language barrier makes for some funny misunderstandings. He is quite loyal to Carl, which is admirable since Carl is not very kind to him most of the time. Rose is her own form of weird, but she is important to the success of the investigative team.

The plot of this book in the series is my least favorite so far. The main crimes in the book are odd and strangely motivated. The criminal has serious issues with religion and faith. The chapters dealing with his history and his motivations are tedious to read. There is too much detail for me. The book is over 500 pages, but I do not feel it needs to be. That being said, I did enjoy most of the book. I enjoyed all of the chapters that focused on Department Q because I find their personalities and relationships interesting.

This is definitely a 3 star book. I like it, but it is not the best in the series. If it were shorter with a little less focus on some of the more tedious characters and details, it would be much better.