Exceptional Authors, Essential Television, DMMT741A

Every great crime series has a first book, and the first book is always worth hunting down. Knots & Crosses introduced a young Edinburgh detective named John Rebus and set in motion one of British crime fiction's most decorated careers. The Crossing Places planted Ruth Galloway on the Norfolk coast, where the archaeology runs as dark as the tides, whilst The Blackhouse carried Peter May's Lewis Trilogy to the Outer Hebrides, where menace seems to rise from the ground itself. The Lincoln Lawyer put Michael Connelly's Mickey Haller in the back of a car and unleashed him on the Los Angeles legal system. Four novels that changed what came after them and weeks of exceptional reading waiting on the other side of each.

Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer - Mickey Haller suspects his wealthy client is guilty, and that an innocent man is already serving the sentence for it.

Peter May, The Blackhouse - When Edinburgh detective Fin Macleod returns to Lewis, a brutal murder forces him to confront the life he left behind.

Ian Rankin, Knots & Crosses - As girls vanish across Edinburgh, detective Rebus finds the cryptic notes he's receiving point back to his military past.

Elly Griffiths, The Crossing Places - Ancient bones surface in the Norfolk marshes and draw forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway into a desperate hunt for a missing child.