William Murdoch is a young detective who uses progressive new forensic techniques, such as fingerprinting and trace evidence, to solve some of the city’s most gruesome murders. Murdoch is a man with an almost supernatural instinct in solving crimes. Each theory is revealed as an intuitive flash - a visual dramatisation of events based on the evidence given. This process evolves as the evidence mounts and the fragments of the crime are gradually pieced together...

Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian / British co-production which is set in Canada during the 1890s. The show is based on the critically acclaimed mystery novels by Maureen Jennings.

Murdoch's (Yannick Bisson) unconventional approach often elicits ridicule from fellow officers and scepticism from his boss - gruff, no-nonsense Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig). Brackenreid plays by the rules but often lets Murdoch disobey an order as he’s the only one who can crack the case. In the days where political correctness is almost always in the headlines, it's refreshing to have a character like Brackenreid who speaks his mind as people would have done before we had to watch what we said for fear of offending anyone.

A small circle of confidantes make up Murdoch’s team. These include Brackenreid; Beautiful pathologist Julia Ogden, played by Hélène Joy; Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), Murdoch’s eager but inexperienced right-hand man. Additionally Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Geraint Wyn Davies) and psychic Sarah Pensell (Maria del Mar).

This box set contains all 13 (40 minute) episodes from the show's first season.

Highlights include:

Episode 2, in which both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sarah Pensell both make their first appearance - both characters go on to appear separately in one more episode. The story sees a medium (Pensell) coming to the aid of the police when a murder is committed. But Murdoch is unsure whether she is really psychic, or has something to do with the murders.

Episode 6, which deals with homosexuality. It's interesting to see how the show tackles this subject, especially considering how criminal the act of two people of the same sex being in love was in the time period. As ever, Brackenreid pulls no punches with his views, but while Murdoch is torn between his feelings, Ogden offers up a more modern view.

Episode 9, introduces the AC/DC electrical current war and includes another historical character in the form of Nikola Tesla. When a woman is electrocuted during a show designed to illustrate the dangers of AC electricity, Murdoch is called in to discover whether the apparent accident was in fact murder.

Episode 10, in which a man is killed and when Murdoch investigates the scene finds the dead man's son, and his ventriloquist dummy, in a cupboard. The dummy seems to have a mind of its own and Murdoch must discover if its owner killed his own father or merely witnessed the crime. This episode features Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once again.

Episode 13 takes a supernatural twist when a body is found hanging in a tree but the killer left no foot prints in the recently ploughed field. As Murdoch and Crabtree investigate they witness alien footprints, crop circles and a strange flying saucer.

Nowhere on the discs are the episode's original titles given - they're simply referred to as Episode 1, 2 etc. There are also no extras, which is a shame as it would have been interesting to have had a few behind the scenes features.

My original concerns with this series was that it would try to be a little too much like other forensic shows like CSI, but set in the 1890s. To some extent my fears were met, as almost every episode sees Murdoch using a new experimental technology he's read about in order to solve a mystery. These include phone tapping, phone tracing, torches, tests to tell if blood is human/animal, lie detector, toxicology, and tattoo removal. But this is done with a knowing smile.

While it takes a few episodes to get going, the show goes from strength to strength and is well worth adding to your DVD collection if you are a fan of murder mystery shows.

8

Pete Boomer