A police officer is killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call. When DCI Alan Banks is called to investigate the grisly scene, he discovers it's the home of a serial rapist and murderer.

Thanks to a Chief Superintendent who is obsessed with damage-limitation, Janet is charged with manslaughter though Annie makes sure that she gets off. A friend of the missing Leanne leads Alan to believe that Payne had a female accomplice to lure the girls into his car and Lucy is the obvious suspect, though she denies it, at the same time admitting she knew her husband was a killer. She also blackmails Maggie into paying for a lawyer for her though Maggie counters by ringing the press to explode the 'accomplice' story. Investigations show Lucy to have been the victim...

Two bodies are found after a fire on some narrow boats and Banks and DS Annie Cabbot find themselves on the trail of an arsonist who has killed two people.

Banks gets a warning for hitting Aspen,after which more money and forgeries are found at the burnt out scene of McMahon's murder.Banks deduces that Gerry,Christina's girl-friend,is one of the forgers and she tells him she believes the killer is called Gary Morrison,who sold the artists' fake paintings but had a sinister hold over them. Banks is displeased to learn that Annie is having an affair with Keane - who also admits to being afraid of Morrison,though he has worked with him. With the evidence pointing to one of two suspects Banks must make a mercy dash to save a...

A student is attacked in the middle of the city and in another part of Yorkshire a woman has her throat cut, but the two different murders have disturbing similarities.

The team is in shock after Kevin's murder. They deduce that he was acting as a vigilante patrolling the alleys to prevent further murders but the witness who saw his death presumed he was out to harm her. She identifies the slayer as a woman but pathologist Dr. Waring disputes this and sees no link with Lucy Payne's death,causing Annie to doubt. Randall is cleared of Hayley's murder when he is given an alibi and,with several likely suspects,Banks is back at square one. Annie however learns of a former rape victim whose perpetrator was murdered before she disappeared,providing a link to Lucy Payne and a clue to the identity of the double murderer. Written by don @ minifie-1

Petty crook Charlie McKay is found murdered in a gangland execution after stealing a van. Meanwhile Banks goes to London to bring back Emily, the erring schoolgirl daughter of Chief Superintendent Rydell, whose topless photos have appeared on the Internet. Banks tracks her down living with violent criminal Barry Clough and returns her to her parents. However, after Emily has implied she has a lot of incriminating evidence about Clough, his henchman Niall Gilbert follows them and she disappears again. Then a young girl's corpse is discovered. Written by don @ minifie-1

The dead girl is Emily. The stress causes her parents to separate, her mother Rosalind telling Banks that Ruth, who was Emily's flatmate in London, is the illegitimate daughter that she gave up for adoption before she met Rydell. Banks is suspicious of Tony, the lad whose van was supposedly stolen by Charlie McKay and the team shadows him, saving him from being shot by Niall Gilbert. Banks gets Tony to confess that he and McKay were couriers for Clough, whom they robbed, Charlie paying with his life. Banks, noting the recent decline in drug arrests, also wonders whether Rydell was on Clough's payroll, the answer to his question coming after a further visit to Rosalind which solves everything. Written by don @ minifie-1