User Reviews

As well as framing different men who had all previously been accused of domestic violence, the killer had removed a little finger from each of the women who were his victims. These were identified by the team as belonging to the nine women involved, so presumably all of their bodies were found. There were three groups of three, admittedly each group in a different location, but each three fairly close together, and all within a short period of time. My question is, regarding the missing fingers, would it not have been likely that the police would have connected these cases, rather than thinking that they were the victims of different men, each cutting off a finger in the same way?

This two part story opens twenty years ago with a policeman rescuing a prostitute from her violent pimp… then beating the man to a pulp. Back in the present a pub landlady is found killed in her bedroom; the obvious suspect is her husband. He was seen arguing with her earlier in the evening and a quick search of the pub finds his bloody cloths and the murder weapon with his fingerprints on. The police are happy that they have got their man but Nicki and Jack aren't convinced. There is something strange about the situation; the killer cut off one of his victims fingers and there is no sign of it, forensics suggests that two knives were used in the attack and there is no blood on the husband's face. As they look into the case they find two other cases of murders were a finder was removed and the husband was sent to prison… if they are correct there have been miscarriages of justice and the police are so convinced that they have their man that there may be another.

I don't think anybody will be surprised about the identity of the killer but that doesn't make the story any less enjoyable as there were still some decent twists. The tension is kept high and more than once it looks as if the protagonists could be harmed… and in the case of a 'guest protagonist' they are. As always the cast puts in a solid performance and for once the appearance of a well known guest star doesn't mean they did it as it does in so many murder mystery series! It did seem a bit far fetched at times; most obviously when the police seemed determined to prosecute a man when it was obvious that the forensics would undermine their case… still it can be but down to dramatic license to make a more exciting story.

Can I take a moment to extol the brilliant work of David Murray , who plays the cop/psychopath Alan Lane? He is an unbelievably frightening man who exudes cold reptilian menace on moment and reasonable aggreivedness the next. He is fast as a snake, and unremittingly violent. He scared the bejesus out of me. The rest of the cast is up to there usual high standards, and the story structure is excellent, it's also good to see "Jack" slipping into the cast , and making good use of his boxing skills...Clarissa and Leo are as usual doing a fine job, but it's the terrifying crazy of David Murray, that mesmerizes from start to finish!

The perp is shot in the chest three times at close range with a nine millimetre semi automatic pistol, yet a second later he gets up and overpowers the former detective who shot him. The fact is that a vest will stop the forward motion of the bullet, but the energy from the sudden cessation of velocity of the solid is transmitted as kinetic energy into the torso, the result of which, even with a 9mm from less than two metres, he would have suffered at the least, broken ribs, possibly a punctured lung and organ trauma. At the end, the perp gets hit with a conveniently placed crowbar, which will, even with a slighter built person such as Emilia Fox, stove in a human skull like an eggshell. It often annoys me when people get hit in tv shows, they shrug it off like it was nothing. Granted, in actual real life the person throwing the punch most likely doesn't have a clue how to properly throw a punch, but the character that hit the perp is a cage fighter, he's going to know how to hit and hit extremely hard, meaning a man who should have internal bleeding, broken ribs still managed to bounce back, stab the seasoned fighter and nearly kill him until the Dr Alexander character brained him with a crowbar. Good grief!