User Reviews

Returning for a fifteenth season this series remains remarkably fresh; this first story opened with the murder of a forensics officer twelve years ago then, in the present, her sister, who is also a forensic expert commits suicide. This has an affect on Leo who had been helping her after the lab she worked for had come into some criticism following an error. The team soon have a case of their own to investigate; three bodies are found in what appears to have been a robbery; the victims are a fifty year old former member of the SAS; his daughter, who was apparently rape and her son. Everything at the crime scene points to a single attacker until a swab on a pipe suggests that a woman was also there... a woman who's DNA has been found at numerous crime scenes. The police believe this woman, who has been dubbed 'The Wraith' has been involved in numerous crimes where she worked with a weak willed male accomplice who committed the murders while she watched. DS Winter, the police officer investigating the case, has been after her for twelve years but never gets close; even when her accomplices are caught they deny all knowledge of her despite DNA proving she was there... there is of course an alternative; an alternative that neither the police nor the forensic experts can dare entertain... that she doesn't exist and only appears due to contamination of the evidence!

This story was a gripping opener to the new series with some nice surprises and a fine twist at the end. As usual the regular cast but in fine performances as did guest stars Adam Best who played DS Winter and Shelley Conn who played DI Connie James. The case kept me interested from start to finish and while I had a few ideas about what was going on with 'The Wraith' I didn't guess who was responsible even though once it was revealed it was apparent that clues were there. As is often the case with this series has a few moments that aren't for the squeamish although I suspect anybody disturbed by that would have stopped watching by now! That said the nature of the stories means that you don't have to have watched the show before to enjoy the stories.

These comments refer to the whole two-part story not just the second episode.

I can't praise this episode enough...or say too much about it, because the brilliance is in the way it subverts our expectations of the thriller genre, even as it exceeds all expectations as to just how deeply such a program can delve into THE central questions of human existence: How and why do we believe what we believe? What is belief, and can we ever get outside the box of our own belief system to observe ourselves as we truly are?

This is madly ambitious storytelling of the highest order, which also works flawlessly on the level of thriller entertainment. Kudos to all, but especially to writer Ed Whitmore. I see he has many more credits here at IMDb, but I think he outdoes himself here.

I generally like this series and particularly the variety of storylines. Except those where the main characters stray too far into independent police work. That's a minor problem here but what really spoils it for me is when the writers force the pathologists into scenes they have no business being in, and then use an unlikely device to involve them further.

Near the end Nikki accompanies the police detective to a suspect's home to confront him. Nikki stays in the car. The detective rings the doorbell with a uniformed officer close by. Nikki is still in the car. An altercation arises and unbelievably, Nikki exits the parked car, past the uniformed officer, into the house to wrest the detective off the suspect. How that happened when the officer was feet away is just poor storytelling for effect.