The Washington Decree

First published in Denmark in 2006, Adler-Olsen’s far-fetched political thriller plays out in a near-future Washington, D.C., where newly elected President Bruce Jansen tries to centralize power by suspending parts of the Constitution. Convinced the country is headed for ruin after his wife’s assassination, Jansen takes several measures to severely limit civil rights. Meanwhile, wealthy hotel magnate Bud Curtis, a political rival of the president, is arrested for the killing of Jansen’s wife. The arrest complicates the career of Curtis’s daughter, Doggie, who has worked for Jansen for many years. As her father’s execution date nears—the death penalty runs rampant in this milieu—Doggie abandons her White House job and sets out to prove her father’s innocence. The ponderous plot moves in ways that strain belief. Fans of the author’s long-running Department Q crime series (The Scarred Woman, etc.) won’t find much to like. [em]Agent: Rudi Urban Rasmussen, Politiken Literary Agency (Denmark). (Aug.) [/em]