User Reviews

A deranged psychopath enjoins a literary game of life-and-death on Harry after attacking Ringo, a gangster's son, with an axe.

Whilst it makes some sense with scholarly clues and Harry having been a literature professor, this is not a good episode. It has become a caricature of itself with a complicated melange of sociopaths, criminals and policemen.

It starts off with a grisly murder of a moneylender. Fergus wants Harry to investigate.

Happy the Loan Shark has an interest in the murder. The dead man was his biological son but no one knew about it. Fergus benefits with having his father's debts wiped off.

Harry reluctantly agrees and in the crime scene, she notices links with Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' with some remarks left behind.

The killer models himself from a character from that novel. His next target is a disabled young man.

It is just a prelude to play some cat and mouse games with Harry herself.

The first problem I found was a murder scene with no police present. I am not sure how the Garda could be bypassed given the nature of the crime.

Then Harry discusses the case out in the open with the killer present and he can hear everything.

There is no mystery as the audience knows who the killer is. So it is a case of which member of Harry's family will end up in peril?

I felt the story tried to be more like the BBC series Luther than a crime mystery.

I want to like this series more than I actually do. I like the two leads and I even like their characters. The writing is just not that interesting or unique. Other British mystery series have plots and dialog that are much more interesting. All the secondary characters are cartoonish and one-dimensional.

I was put off by this episode; it was just too unnerving. We know the killer from the start so there are really no surprises.