Commander Clare Blake makes her top priority the shooting of an unwanted civilian that was originally declared lawful. D.C.I. Hedges wants the case dropped. Meanwhile, James Lampton is released from prison after he has served his sentence for the murder of his girlfriend. Commander Blake discovers that his book she wrote the foreword to is rapidly rising in the bestsellers list and she decides to keep her distance from the situation. But different circumstances force the two together and rumours begin to spread. Then a nurse is found murdered and D.C.I. Hedges spots a way to get Commander Blake off the shooting case.
A murderer is using his computer expertise to blackmail hospital doctors, and threatens that a patient will die every twenty-four hours unless his demands are met. Commander Blake has her own personal problems - she is being stalked by the sister of a victim of James Lampton and is stabbed in the arm, and her sister is still fighting her battle against cancer.
The police are still no closer to the blackmailer and Vera and Eileen Judd, the sisters of one of his victims, are chasing compensation for medical negligence. Brenda Thornton has managed to escape from the secure psychiatric unit and leaves a disturbing message on Commander Blake's answerphone. Commander Blake finds her sister snorting cocaine and takes it off her, hiding it in her desk at work. Brenda tries to attack Blake but Sarah gets in the way and it ends with Brenda getting burned by acid. The police discover the the wife and child of Alistair Morrison died in the same hospital as the brother of Vera and Eileen Judd. The sisters deny any knowledge of the Morrison or the blackmail but the police follow them and find that they are working with Morrison. During a police chase Eileen falls to her death.
Detective Chief Constable Blackton begins an investigation into both the Cripps shooting and the investigation into James Lampton, which drags up problems for both Commander Blake and D.C.I. Hedges. Matters become worse when Blackton begins looking into the Commander's affair and the subsequent arrest of Lampton, while she also has to deal with the death of her sister.
Blackton's investigation gets closer to the truth.
The perfectly-preserved body of a two-year-old girl is found in a sealed oil drum in the basement of the derelict Elliston psychiatric hospital. Commander Blake assumes the role of senior investigating officer from DI Doug James, creating early conflict within the team as they set about investigating former patients and staff. As the team closes in on two particular suspects, there is a clash with the drugs squad, who are running a parallel investigation into one of them.
The murder of Mrs Thornton makes Eric the prime suspect for both deaths, but conflicts with a parallel investigation into the landscape gardening business where Eric works threaten to undermine both cases.
First of a three-part story in which Commander Clare Blake has to oversee the case of a woman bludgeoned to death in her own home. The shocking nature of the crime is compounded by the fact that the chief suspect is the woman's own son, DS Brian Hall, a member of Blake's own murder team. As the case unfolds, details of Hall's hidden life as a chronic alcoholic emerge. DCI Doug James has his own problem though. Friction between him and his expectant wife take a turn when the baby finally arrives, and the nightmare begins.
In the second of a three-part story, Clare Blake begins to feel the pressure of two high-profile yet deeply personal cases coinciding. The focus is now on the mothers at Zoe's maternity classes. And Brian still has no recollection of what happened on the night of his mother's murder. As he becomes resigned to the fact that he may have killed her, an incident in prison spurs him to remember a crucial development. But can he persuade an already deflated Doug that he is telling the truth?
The body of a self-made millionaire is found floating in his swimming pool two days after he was arrested by the Serious Fraud Office, having been siphoning funds to fund a lavish lifestyle with a wife and two mistresses. Commissioner Branton asks Blake to oversee the investigation into the death. DCI James soon discovers that the women knew all about about each other, and believes that each had a motive for murder.
A post mortem examination shows that Donald Griffith died from a blow to the neck, and not by drowning, supporting DCI James's theory that one or other of the women in his life had decided to profit from his death. Dutch detective Van Hauten arrives with a possible solution, and designs on Commander Blake.
Part one of two. A priest is brutally beaten and stabbed to death on an east London estate, where bad feeling between residents and police threatens to undermine the investigation. Suspicion falls on local boxing protege Jimmy Bannerman, but progress is hampered when Doug and Clare demonstrate very different attitudes to the brutal competitiveness of the sport. However, a vicious attack on a fellow detective forces them to form a united front. Boxer-turned-actor Gary Stretch stars as Bannerman's…
Part two of two. As the investigation continues, suspicion shifts from Jimmy Bannerman to Terry Donnolly when an eyewitness puts him at the scene of the murder and information on his troubled childhood comes to light. Doug has been coping with his own emotional events at home, but realises he may already know who the real killer could be.
The police team's former colleague Brian Hall becomes a murder suspect.
An attack jolts Brian memory and the focus turns to the mothers from Zoe's maternity class.
Brian becomes convinced that somebody else was in the room with him when he found his mother's body.
