He is a 52-year-old Danish crime author most famous for his series of ‘Department Q’ books − the first of which is currently being made into a feature film.

So he’s a kind of Danish Stieg Larsson then?
Of sorts! They both write (or wrote, in Larsson’s case) crime novels, come from Scandinavia, and have been successful.

Says who?
It’s safe to say he’s won pretty much every Nordic award for crime fiction that exists, and Adler-Olsen recently beat out fellow Scandinavian crime writer Henning Mankel (of Swedish ‘Wallander’ fame) for the highly-prized Barry Award, an American honour afforded to the best crime novel of the year, and one that Larsson was awarded posthumously.

Which book was that for?
‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’, which is the first of the ‘Department Q’ books. It follows the life and career of Carl Mørck, a maladjusted police commissioner who gets put on cold case duty after an investigation gone wrong.

Sounds familiar!
After the international success of Sarah Lund and her knitted sweater in ‘Forbrydelsen’, everyone just loves angst-ridden, conflicted Scandinavian detectives apparently. There was no way Olsen could go wrong! And considering the fact that a Danish A-lister, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is playing the lead role in the upcoming film, something tells us it isn’t going to do too shabbily either.

So this Olsen is doing well for himself, then!
Indeed he is! During an interview with the tabloid Ekstra Bladet earlier this month, a reporter asked him about his 27 million kroner fortune. Olsen scoffed at this measly calculation, and said it was at least double that number. When asked about his year, he said he was very satisfied. No doubt about that!