The Best British Tv Crime Series

British TV Crime series, it transpires, have much in common with the UK staple of bangers & mash; both usually feature simple ingredients that add up to a greater delectable whole. Your typical British TV crime drama may have you thinking of aristocratic tea drinking heroes, peering through the hedges at some suspicious goings on about the Village green. But there's a whole other side to British Crime Dramas - a tough contemporary side where hardened detectives battle it out with society's most depraved and disturbing criminals. The British seem to have a talent for depicting the complicated and sometimes compromised nature of coppers. This is a complete collection of my favourite gritty, funny and suspense filled British crime shows produced since 1980. Over a number of years the author has taken the time to watch and carefully evaluate each series described in this book. Rather than simply providing an overview, this compilation offers reviews intended to illuminate key issues as well as ratings and other detailed information on over 100 British TV crime drama series.

New York Times bestselling author Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher, is “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post) and “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker). “Required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times Now airing as a Starz series. In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad—until an urgent telephone call brings her back to an eerie crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Suddenly, Cassie is back undercover, to find out not only who killed this young woman, but, more importantly, who she was. The Likeness is a supremely suspenseful story exploring the nature of identity and belonging.

A child-sex predator is on the loose and Detective Lennox, terrified and determined is going to protect the victim at any cost. Detective Inspector Ray Lennox has fled to Miami to escape the aftermath of a mental breakdown induced by occupational stress and cocaine abuse, and a harrowing child-sex murder case back in Edinburgh. But his fiancée Trudi is only interested in planning their wedding, leaving Lennox cast adrift, alone in Florida. A coke-fuelled binge brings him into contact with another victim of sexual predation, ten-year-old Tianna, and Lennox flees across the state with his terrified charge, determined to protect her at any cost. Can Lennox trust his own instincts? And can he handle Tianna, while still trying to get to grips with the Edinburgh murder? 'Welsh is one of our most interesting writers' Sunday Telegraph 'A disturbing but vital read' Harper's Bazaar *DISCOVER THE SECOND NOVEL IN IRVINE WELSH'S CRIME SERIES, THE LONG KNIVES, NOW*

A brand-new collection of bite-sized mysteries celebrating the best of the genre with exclusives from Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Val McDermid, Anne Perry and many more.

A staple of television since the early years of the BBC, British crime drama first crossed the Atlantic on public broadcasting stations and specialty cable channels, and later through streaming services. Often engaging with domestic anxieties about the government's power (or lack thereof), and with larger issues of social justice like gender equality, racism, and homophobia, it has constantly evolved to reflect social and cultural changes while adapting U.S. and Nordic noir influences in a way that retains its characteristically British elements. This collection examines the continuing appeal of British crime drama from The Sweeney through Sherlock, Marcella, and Happy Valley. Individual essays focus on male melodrama, nostalgia, definitions of community, gender and LGBTQ representation, and neoliberalism. The persistence of the English murder, as each chapter of this collection reveals, points to the complexity of British crime drama's engagement with social, political, and cultural issues. It is precisely the mix of British stereotypes, coupled with a willingness to engage with broader global social and political issues, that makes British crime drama such a successful cultural export.

When a wealthy widow is found murdered, her married lover is accused of the crime. His only hope for acquittal is the testimony of his wife, proving his alibi. However, she has some secrets of her own to reveal.

Queen of crime Sophie Hannah's third stunning psychological suspense novel. 'Addictive' Marie Claire 'Irresistible' Guardian It began with an affair. And ended in murder. Sally is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she ought not to recognise: Mark Bretherick. Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was cancelled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from her busy life juggling work and a young family, Sally didnt tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she booked a week off work and treated herself to a secret holiday. All she wanted was a bit of peace - some time to herself - but it didn't work out that way. Because Sally met a man. Mark Bretherick. All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the man on the news is a man Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead . . .

Two British police detectives take on a case close to home: “One of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today” (Gillian Flynn). One of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 Great Summer Thrillers” Tom Thorne is on holiday with his girlfriend, DS Helen Weeks, when two girls are abducted in Helen’s hometown in Warwickshire. When a body is discovered and a man is arrested, Helen recognizes the suspect’s wife as an old school friend, and reluctantly returns home for the first time in twenty-five years to lend her support. As his partner faces up to a past she has tried desperately to forget and a media storm engulfs the town, Thorne becomes convinced that, despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the police have got the wrong man. There is still an extremely clever killer on the loose—and a missing girl who Thorne believes might still be alive . . . “Some ingenious forensic footwork. What is most impressive about the novel, however, is the astute observation of the beleaguered Bates family, who turn in on themselves as the inhabitants of the town turn on them.” —The Guardian