Arne Dahl

Series one, episode two
The beauty of an ensemble police drama is that it spreads the jeopardy; hence another member of A Unit goes down this week, soon after Viggo returns from his uncomfortably personal brush with Christian iconography. But they can’t hunt down this particular killer alone: a tramp, a dodgy barman and a jazz buff provide critical breakthroughs as the clock ticks and another fat cat’s life is endangered.

The assassin’s motives prove disappointingly prosaic, and each member of the team is only lightly sketched out. Yet the touching conclusion packs a surprisingly hefty punch and, if tonight doesn’t quite deliver on the promise of last week’s opener, it’s still an above average crime thriller with a pleasingly wry sense of humour. It’ll be worth sticking with over the next eight episodes, if only to see what the deal is with that office cleaner…