When a teenager is arrested for dropping bricks on cars from a bridge over a motorway his DNA is a partial match to that found at a murder site a few years previously. He isn't the killer but a close relative is; the problem is there is no known close relative; he was the result of a rape and his mother's attacker was never identified. It is enough to reopen the case though and the team are soon looking into the murder victim's life. She worked as an interpreter; a job for which she had been highly regarded and in her free time she was a member of a local chess club. Suspects appear from both areas of her life; most notably a rather sleazy attaché at the Chilean embassy and a chess player who she had defeated over forty times
until he finally beat her shortly before her murder. While the case is progressing Gerry, somewhat surprisingly, gets interested in chess and Steve has to deal with his dying father
a man he can't stand.
The use of chess in murder mysteries has become a bit of a cliché but at least here it just provides a possible motive rather than having the killer play chess through his actions and even then there is another totally different possible motive that has nothing to do with the game. The fact that the two main motives were so different yet plausible, within the realm of TV mysteries, keeps one guessing almost to the end. Steve's side story seemed a bit tacked on; as though the creators wanted a good reason for him to be very grumpy for much of the episode; Gerry's growing interest in chest did provide a few chuckles though. The biggest surprise for me was the opening; it was made to look as though dropping bricks onto cars as they drive along is no big deal rather than an incredible dangerous and incredibly stupid thing to do!
The use of chess in murder mysteries has become a bit of a cliché but at least here it just provides a possible motive rather than having the killer play chess through his actions and even then there is another totally different possible motive that has nothing to do with the game. The fact that the two main motives were so different yet plausible, within the realm of TV mysteries, keeps one guessing almost to the end. Steve's side story seemed a bit tacked on; as though the creators wanted a good reason for him to be very grumpy for much of the episode; Gerry's growing interest in chest did provide a few chuckles though. The biggest surprise for me was the opening; it was made to look as though dropping bricks onto cars as they drive along is no big deal rather than an incredible dangerous and incredibly stupid thing to do!
