The Best Episodes Written By Paul Rutman

Convinced there's a link between the emergency calls, June sets out to prove a theory—but Hegarty stays one step ahead.

An anonymous call puts Detective Sergeant June Lenker in the path of the formidable Daniel Hegarty.

DCI Vera Stanhope and DS Joe Ashworth investigate a suspicious death in an army barracks. Although the scene has been made to look like a suicide, Vera quickly establishes that Staff Sgt 'Dev' Deverson was murdered. Sensing a connection to a soldier named Ollie who was killed in Afghanistan, Vera interviews Dev's loyal comrades and Ollie's grieving family, exposing a deeply concealed trauma at the heart of the crime.

Vera's reunion with her first-ever sergeant, Stuart Macken, occurs under tragic circumstances when his house is petrol-bombed. Stuart is badly burned by the attack and his 18-year-old daughter Stella is left fighting for her life in intensive care. Vera is shocked to see that Stuart is a shadow of the man she knew 20 years before and, when her investigation uncovers unpleasant revelations about his personal life, she is faced with some long-buried memories of her own.

Investigating a mysterious death, DCI Vera Stanhope finds herself in a quiet coastal town with clues that keep revolving around one street.

The team investigate the art of illusion when they reopen a case involving a magic trick that ended in murder. Powerful mind games and hypnosis prove a dangerous mix for Brian Lane, however, sending him down a destructive path. Meanwhile, a session with the Magic Circle's Dr Moroni leaves a sceptical Gerry Standing feeling paranoid and his colleagues a little nervous around him.

Last in the series of the detective drama based on the novels by Ann Cleeves. DI Vera Stanhope rescues a young boy from a freezing pond after he escapes from a violent attack which left his mother dead. As Vera and her team investigate what happened to the child, they unravel a web of deadly secrets and discover a murderous sequence of events set in motion by power, money and a mother's love. Although she is usually awkward and uninterested around children, Vera finds a kindred spirit in the boy, and begins to realise that the key to the investigation may lie hidden in his memory.

When a woman is murdered in the remote Northumbrian countryside, DCI Vera Stanhope is led back to a place from her past. As she and her team investigate, they uncover shadowy liaisons, conflicting sympathies and hidden injustices.

After two young people are killed in the same way - placed in water and surrounded by flowers - DCI Vera Stanhope knows that she must catch the murderer before they strike again. Aided by her team, especially her trusted right-hand man Sgt Joe Ashworth, she unpicks the complex and dysfunctional relationships amongst a group of bird-watching friends. As the friends' loyalty turns to betrayal, Vera finds that a small act of teenage blackmail and an illicit affair may have driven someone to kill.

After Jeanie Long commits suicide, evidence comes to light exonerating her for the murder of teenager Abigail Mantel 11 years earlier. DCI Vera Stanhope and her team set out to retrospectively solve the killing, delving into the secrets and lies of a small community which still feels the repercussions of Abigail's death. Then the case takes an violent and unexpected turn - can Vera use her skill and instinct to find the truth and lay ghosts to rest?