Paddy Considine returns as the broody, Mr Whicher. While the first story was based on factual events.
This one is entirely fictionalised. Mr Whicher has taken early retirement from the Metropolitan Police, somewhat under a cloud because of the Constance Kent fiasco. (The real Mr Whicher remained in the police and rose to the rank of assistant superintendent.)
Whicher comes to the aid of a country lady Susan Spencer (Olivia Colman) who has come to London to search for her missing 16 year old niece Mary. It turns out that Mary was murdered and she had just given birth to a baby.
It does not take long for Whicher to track down the baby who is in a home for fallen woman run by a priest.
Suspicion for the murder falls on the baby's father, a young man with a violent past. Susan Spencer's own past is entwined with the baby's father's family. Her father was murdered some years earlier.
Whicher comes into conflict with his former colleagues at the police as he carries out his own investigations. This includes probing the priest that runs the home for fallen women, but also a psychiatric institution who does not like Whicher poking his nose about.
There is a suspicion that Whicher is unhinged when he exhumes a body. A gambit that goes wrong. It leads to more squabbles with the police with only one officer who shows him some support.
The story is very much Whicher going about in his dogged way. Once again he tries to use science and deduction. Every which way he faces obstacles.
The denouement though gets very complicated. I felt it was rather unfathomable and difficult to take seriously.
This one is entirely fictionalised. Mr Whicher has taken early retirement from the Metropolitan Police, somewhat under a cloud because of the Constance Kent fiasco. (The real Mr Whicher remained in the police and rose to the rank of assistant superintendent.)
Whicher comes to the aid of a country lady Susan Spencer (Olivia Colman) who has come to London to search for her missing 16 year old niece Mary. It turns out that Mary was murdered and she had just given birth to a baby.
It does not take long for Whicher to track down the baby who is in a home for fallen woman run by a priest.
Suspicion for the murder falls on the baby's father, a young man with a violent past. Susan Spencer's own past is entwined with the baby's father's family. Her father was murdered some years earlier.
Whicher comes into conflict with his former colleagues at the police as he carries out his own investigations. This includes probing the priest that runs the home for fallen women, but also a psychiatric institution who does not like Whicher poking his nose about.
There is a suspicion that Whicher is unhinged when he exhumes a body. A gambit that goes wrong. It leads to more squabbles with the police with only one officer who shows him some support.
The story is very much Whicher going about in his dogged way. Once again he tries to use science and deduction. Every which way he faces obstacles.
The denouement though gets very complicated. I felt it was rather unfathomable and difficult to take seriously.